300 stranded Pakistanis enter Balochistan after Iran border temporarily opened

KARACHI: Pakistan on Friday temporarily opened its border with Iran at Taftan crossing point to allow 300 stranded nationals, mostly traders, to enter Balochistan province, officials said.
Pakistan closed its border with Iran on Monday after Tehran confirmed deaths from the deadly coronavirus.
“Today, we opened the border and allowed 300 people, mostly traders, stuck on the Iranian side to enter Pakistan,” Assistant Commissioner of Taftan, Najibullah Qambrani, told Arab News.
He said that all the pilgrims will be quarantined while the traders will be allowed to go if they are cleared during the initial screening.
However, he said that this will be conditional to whether their travel history confirms they have not visited the affected Iranian province.
A complete screening set-up has been installed at the border crossing to keep the virus from entering Pakistan, Qambrani said.
On Thursday, Pakistan suspended its flight operation to Iran after health authorities confirmed two cases of coronavirus — one in the southern port city of Karachi — who had returned from Iran to Pakistan on February 20 by air. 
“One case has been reported in Sindh, whereas the second person tested positive in the federal (capital) areas,” State Minister for Health Zafar Mirza said during a press conference in Quetta.
Both the persons traveled to Iran in the past 14 days, Mirza said, adding that they were in stable condition.
The coronavirus patient in Sindh has been identified as a 22-year-old resident of Karachi who is already quarantined.
The man “and other members of his family have been quarantined at a private hospital,” Meeran Yousuf, spokesperson of the Sindh health department, told Arab News.
The development followed the establishment of isolation wards in hospitals and closure of education institutes for two days in Sindh and Balochistan.
Health emergency has been imposed in ten districts bordering Iran, according to a briefing given to chief minister Balochistan, Jam Kamal, on Friday. Around 5000 masks have also been distributed in sensitive districts while Isolation units have been established in different areas along Pakistan’s border with Iran and Afghanistan, according to an official handout released after the briefing. 
The centers have been provided with ThermoGuns and 231 ambulances to tackle emergencies. 
Education institutes in Balochistan have been temporarily closed until March 15 “as a precaution to protect children from coronavirus,” the province’s education directorate announced in a circular on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Sindh, Murad Ali Shah, said that data acquired from the aviation department confirmed that around 8,000 passengers had traveled from Iran where 1,500 of them had arrived in Karachi. “All of them would be contacted for screening.”
“A group of 28 people who had traveled along the coronavirus patient has also been identified and will be approached for screening,” Shah added, informing that the person suffering from the virus had been shifted to an isolated place from the Aga Khan Hospital in Karachi.
Iran has the highest number of coronavirus affectees outside of China. The country’s health ministry spokesman, Kianoush Jahanpour, said on Wednesday that 19 people had died from the illness, with 139 confirmed cases in the country.
The deadly virus has infected more than 80,000 people around the world, causing over 2,700 deaths, mainly in China, according to the World Health Organization.