ISLAMABAD / KARACHI, March 15: : Punjab on Sunday reported its first case of COVID-19, a mysterious pneumonia-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus, after a 54-year-old patient who returned from the United Kingdom on March 10 tested positive at a Lahore hospital, pushing the tally in Pakistan to 53.
“It is the first #COVID19 case in Punjab so far. All of his close contacts are tested negative but they will be kept in isolation for 15 days as per SOPs,” Punjab government spokesperson Musarrat Cheema confirmed in a tweet. At least 13 pilgrims, who arrived in Sukkur from Iran, have also tested positive for the contagious disease, raising the tally in Sindh to 35 out of which two have been discharged after full recovery.
The province now has three locally transmitted cases.
“So far 13 people have tested positive of #COVID?19 from amongst the people who arrived in Sukkur from Taaftaan. These people were purportedly kept in quarantine at the border,” Sindh government spokesperson Mutaza Wahab confirmed in a tweet from his official handle.
In another tweet, the provincial spokesperson said that one more case has tested positive of coronavirus in Sindh.
Five new cases of the novel coronavirus were also confirmed earlier in the day – four in Karachi and one in Islamabad.
According to details, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) confirmed one case in Islamabad while the Sindh Health Department reported four new patients in Karachi.
The latest patient in Islamabad is the husband of the woman who recently arrived from the United States and tested positive. The woman is currently in critical condition, receiving treatment at the isolation ward of PIMS.
So far Pakistan has reported 53 COVID-19 cases – 35 in Sindh, 10 in Balochistan, 4 in Islamabad, 3 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 1 in Punjab.
As of mid-March, COVID-19, the deadly respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, has infected 156,00 people globally and killed more than 6,000.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Europe has become the pandemic’s current epicenter after reporting more cases and deaths than the rest of world combined, apart from China where the coronavirus originated last December.-Agencies
