Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered for an inter-ministerial gathering be held at an emergency basis to talk about forestalling measures against lethal novel coronavirus (NCV) and define measures to handle such an outbreak in Pakistan.

Representatives of the ministries of transport, home affairs, foreign affairs, education and health will attend the emergency meeting.

In the meantime, Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing, in a video proclamation, has said that Chinese and Pakistani governments are working intently and 500 Pakistani residents in Wuhan city of the Hubei region are protected and being cared for. Both the administrations are cooperating with one another, he said.

The government is putting in place necessary safety protocols against the China-origin new strain of coronavirus which has set off global alarms with Pakistani officials fearing if precautionary measures are not adopted on time, then the spread of the mysterious illness in their country could not be ruled out.

So far, there have been more than 2,744 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV – which is believed to have originated in a wet market of Wuhan city, in China’s Hubei province which has since been quarantined by authorities in an effort to stem the spread of the viral outbreak.

Sporadic cases of the viral contagion have also been confirmed in around a dozen countries as distant as France, Australia and the United States.