Health officials on Tuesday confirmed a fifth case of the novel coronavirus in Pakistan and identified the patient as a 45-year-old woman from the remote Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region who is believed to have been infected in Iran.
Minister of State for Health Dr Zafar Mirza made the revelation on his official Twitter handle. The patient has recently been to Iran. He wouldn’t name her and also requested the media to respect the privacy of the patient and her family.
The patient has been shifted to the isolation ward of a local hospital in Gilgit, while her family members are also being screened for the highly infectious virus. The minister assured the patient is stable and being taken care of. Schools and other educational institutes in GB have been closed till March 7 following the confirmation of the COVID-19 cases in the region.
GB Information Secretary Fida Husain reportedly confirmed the age of the patient and said she had recently returned from Iran.
Geographically, GB shares a border with China and the government would decide in April whether or not to reopen the Khunjarab Pass border crossing with China.
Khunjarab Pass, the only border crossing with China, is shut in winter as heavy snow makes driving on the Karakoram Highway extremely perilous. Usually, the border reopens in February, but this year the authorities decided to extend the closure following the viral outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Of the five confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan, all had a history of travel to Iran. Two of the cases are in Karachi and three in GB, though officially Dr Zafar Mirza won’t name the cities.
Sindh, which had closed all educational institutes till March 1 following the official confirmation of the first case in Karachi, on Monday extended the closure till March 13. Provincial government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab on Tuesday denied reports that the educational institutes would remain shut until April 1.
Despite repeated calls from government officials for calm, the confirmation of novel coronavirus cases has set rumour mills in motion and social media is becoming the main source of spreading disinformation and creating panic. The Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) on Tuesday sought to dispel rumours and misinformation regarding the number of coronavirus cases reported at the facility.
“AKUH is aware and has taken note of some individuals/groups posting fake and unsubstantiated news regarding the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and causing unnecessary panic,” it said in a statement. “We are actively screening patients to ensure we do not miss any case. To date, only one person has been confirmed to have COVID-19 at the facility,” it added.
The hospital urged citizens to only “rely on credible news coming directly from [AKUH], the government or the World Health Organisation”. It also advised citizens to protect themselves from the virus by frequently washing their hands and coughing/sneezing into a tissue or in one’s elbow. The confirmation of COVID-19 cases in Pakistan set off a facemask-buying spree in the country which resulted in their shortage in the market. Dr Mirza, however, sought to clarify that not everybody has to wear the protective masks.
He said people have needlessly started buying facemasks. “This shows that they don’t understand its (facemask) purpose,” he said while regretting that some people resorts to profiteering whenever a tragedy strikes the country.
In Karachi, the authorities on Tuesday seized 40,000 facemasks imported by a private firm during a raid at Port Qasim. The raided was conducted by sensitive agencies based on a tip-off that a container shipped from abroad had a huge quantity of surgical facemasks, the officials said. The raid was authorised by the Sindh government.
The provincial government decided to purchase the consignment at market price from the private firm which officials feared was planning to sell the imported facemasks at an inflated price.
The raid came days after the drugs inspectors had confiscated another consignment of N95 category facemasks at the same port. “We have taken a shipping container into custody, which carried a total of 80,000 N95 masks,” chief drug inspector Shoaib Ansari said on Feb 29.
Apart from the China border crossing, Pakistan has also shut its land routes with Iran and Afghanistan. In Iran, the infestation is believed to have spread from the holy city of Qum. Initially, Iranian authorities tried to downplay the outbreak saying things were under control.
However, in less than two weeks the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Iran jumped from two to more than 2,300, shaking public trust in the regime’s capacity to contain the disease and exacerbating the country’s economic isolation. According to official stats, the number of officially reported cases has doubled almost daily and at least 77 people have now died.
In Islamabad, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Tuesday said travellers from China, Iran and other coronavirus-hit countries will be quarantined for 15 days.
The quarantine centre will be ready in one week, where all facilities, including lodging, cafeteria, and a dispensary, will be made available, according to a spokesperson for the NDMA.
He added that the quarantine centre has been set up as a precautionary measure to manage the viral outbreak.
Additionally, the NDMA has also established a modern 300-bed quarantine centre in Islamabad and has obtained three modern thermal scanners – worth Rs20 million – to identify travellers showing higher body temperature on arrival in Pakistan. The scanners have been installed at major airports across the country.