Bureau Report
KARACHI–Sindh has reported its fourth case of coronavirus, taking the total number of cases nationwide to seven, Sindh’s coronavirus taskforce has informed Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.
“The 50-year-old patient is a resident of Karachi and tested positive today,” said Meeran Yousuf, the media coordinator for the Sindh health minister.
“All his contacts have been quarantined. We are looking into further details of the patient’s travel history,” she added.
Another case of the novel coronavirus has emerged from Karachi, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was told on Sunday.
The chief minister was presiding over a meeting of the taskforce formed to tackle the spread of the pandemic in Sindh.
The participants of the meeting were told that another case of the novel coronavirus had emerged from Karachi after a person tested positive for the infection.
The chief minister was told that four suspected patients were tested for the novel virus and only one came back positive. CM Murad was told that 107 samples were sent from Sindh out of which four tested positive.
The meeting was also informed that one Karachi patient had been successfully treated and had been sent home. CM Murad issued directives for health authorities to thoroughly check people close to the patient to determine whether they have been infected by the virus or not.
The pandemic has spread to more than 70 countries around the world, an estimated 3,000 people and affected more than 80,000 ever since it began spreading from the wet markets in Wuhan, China, to other parts of the world. Pakistan suspended its flight operations to Iran and China after the outbreak of the disease in the two countries. On Sunday, an emergency was imposed in New York after the number of coronavirus cases in there rose to 19.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has regularly taken to Twitter to inform people that they have nothing to fear from the coronavirus and said that all undergoing treatment in Pakistan are stable and improving.
March 08 (INP): None of the people quarantined at Pakistan House at the Taftan Border have tested positive for the coronavirus. They will be sent back home after staying in quarantine for a week. There were fears that travellers coming from Iran would bring the coronavirus with them so Pakistan closed the border and put all the arrivals in quarantine.
The PDMA says many people have completed a full week in quarantine and have tested negative for the virus. Over 2,000 will be sent to Quetta. So far, the number of people who crossed the border into Pakistan has been recorded at 4,000. A quarantine centre has been set up in Quetta where 3,000 people can stay. It was set up after Pakistan House ran out of space. People will be taken there in over 30 buses.
The PDMA says that once the people reach Quetta they will be screened again.
Pakistan has reported six confirmed cases of coronavirus and all of them had a travel history to Iran. Pakistan’s neighbor has reported the highest number of coronavirus deaths outside of China and thousands have been infected, including parliamentarians and government officials. Iran has officially confirmed 145 deaths and over 6,000 cases.
The global number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, has surpassed 100,000, the World Health Organization (WHO), a Geneva-based U.N. agency, reported Saturday. “As we mark this sombre moment, the World Health Organization reminds all countries and communities that the spread of this virus can be significantly slowed or even reversed through the implementation of robust containment and control activities”, the UN agency said in a statement.
WHO urged countries to continue efforts that have been effective in limiting the number of cases and slowing the spread of the virus, first identified in Wuhan, China, last December. Actions include identifying people who are sick with the respiratory disease and bringing them to care, as well as following up on contacts, preparing health facilities to manage a surge in patients, and training health workers.
“Every effort to contain the virus and slow the spread saves lives”, the statement said. “These efforts give health systems and all of society much needed time to prepare, and researchers more time to identify effective treatments and develop vaccines”. WHO said it will continue to work with countries and partners to coordinate international response to the disease, and to develop guidance, distribute supplies and inform people how to protect themselves and others. “We must stop, contain, control, delay and reduce the impact of this virus at every opportunity”, said WHO, adding that everyone can contribute “whether in the home, the community, the health care system, the work place or the transport system”.
As cases of the coronavirus surge in Italy, Iran, South Korea, the US and elsewhere, many scientists say it’s plain that the world is in the grips of a pandemic a serious global outbreak. The World Health Organisation has so far resisted describing the crisis as such, saying the word pandemic might spook the world further and lead some countries to lose hope of containing the virus.
“Unless we’re convinced it’s uncontrollable, why (would) we call it a pandemic?” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week.
The UN health agency has previously described a pandemic as a situation in which a new virus is causing sustained community-level outbreaks in at least two world regions. Many experts say that threshold has long been met: The virus that was first identified in China is now spreading freely in four regions, it has reached every continent but Antarctica, and its advance seems unavoidable. The disease has managed to gain a foothold and multiply quickly even in countries with relatively strong public health systems.
