Daily Times

As per the decision of the Pakistan government to shut the Pak-Afghan sharing border Torkham at Sunday midnight due to possible spread of coronavirus, a huge crowd of pedestrians was witnessed at both side of the border willing to cross. The government, keeping in view the possible spread of COVID-19 in the country, decided to close the Torkham border from March 16 for 14 days. Hundreds of thousands of Afghanistan bound passengers and vice versa at both sides of the crossing approached to the border early in the morning and started waiting in long queues outside the immigration offices to leave early for their destination. The border would remain open till late night hours to assist the passengers to cross in or out the border, however at 12am the border had been suspended for all kind of vehicles. The Afghan citizens asked the authorities to extend the deadline for closing the border and deployed more immigration staff so that they could cross the border to Afghanistan. Meanwhile the district administration established 11 quarantine centres in Landi Kotal to tackle possible COVID 19 patients. Additional Assistant Commissioner, Landi Kotal Shamsul Islam said that in the light of the directions of the federal and provincial governments, 11 centres had been set up to quarantine possible 300 coronavirus victims coming from abroad. The isolation centers had been built in headquarter hospital,Landi Kotal, government degree college, Landi Kotal, govt high schools, govt high school Abdul Ghafoor Kalley, govt high school Zentara, govt girls high secondary school, govt middle schools Shiekhwal and Gagra respectively beside veterinary hospital and C&W office. The official told that all necessary health equipment in addition with four ambulances had been provided and the health officials had been deployed round the clock to deal in emergency. He added that those who had traveled abroad would be admit in the quarantine centers for 14 days and 40 employees beside the health crew had been specialized to serve the possible COVID 19 affectees. The official urged the residents to avoid joining crowded gatherings and strictly follow the directions publicize by the government. It is worth mentioning here that so far 31 coronavirus positive cases have been detected across the country.