ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has beefed up the screening process at country-wide airports as 20 Chinese flights landed at Islamabad International Airport after an outbreak of coronavirus, ARY NEWS reported.
According to the airport sources, a total of 20 flights reached directly from China to Islamabad, carrying more than 2100 passengers.
“The health ministry has increased the screening process at the country-wide airports aimed at halting the entry of any suspected case of coronavirus in the country,” they said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the death toll from the novel coronavirus surged past 800 in mainland China on Sunday, overtaking global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic, even as the World Health Organization said the outbreak appeared to be “stabilising”.
With 89 more people dying — most in Hubei, the province at the centre of the outbreak — the toll is now higher than the 774 killed worldwide by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome nearly two decades ago, according to figures from national health authorities.
The latest data came after the WHO said the last four days had seen “some stabilising” in Hubei but warned it was “very early to make any predictions” and the figures can still “shoot up”.
Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza on Friday chaired a meeting to review measures taken to prevent coronavirus spread in the country.
Speaking during the meeting which was also attended by Federal Secretary Health Dr. Allah Baksh Malik and armed forces representative Major General Amir Ikram, Dr. Zafar Mirza said that National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad received 25 samples of suspected coronavirus patients.
“All of them have tested negative showing that there is not a single case of coronavirus reported in the country,” he said adding that they were taking steps to adopt all measures aimed at tackling the spread of coronavirus in the country.
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