Daily Times

Authorities in Balochistan have increased vigilance on the border with Iran following reports of a spike in coronavirus cases of Delta variant in Iran.

The Balochistan government Spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani said this on Saturday, adding the decision to close the border rests with the federal government, but the Balochistan government has increased vigilance.

He said that authorities are ensuring that every individual entering Pakistan through the Taftan crossing with Iran is screened at the border and has tested negative for the coronavirus. Iran’s president Hassan Rohani said on Saturday that the country may suffer another wave of coronavirus infections, as officials warned the more infectious Delta variant of the disease is spreading.

Rohani’s comments came at a meeting of the national coronavirus task force. “It is feared that we are on the way to a fifth wave throughout the country,” he said during the televised portion of the meeting. He urged people to postpone summer travels and gatherings to prevent the “spread of the virus, particularly its Indian variant.” The Iran–Pakistan border is around 1,000 kilometres long and demarcates Pakistan’s Balochistan province from Iran’s Sistan and Balochistan, which Iranian health authorities have now classified as “red” — the highest category on Iran’s coronavirus risk scale.

While the Iranian side earlier this week closed its Pakistan border due to rising Covid-19 cases in Zahedan, a frontier town that is the capital of Sistan and Balochistan, it has not been sealed from the Pakistani side.