KARACHI: The first Pakistani man who tested positive for coronavirus last month has been successfully treated and discharged, a Sindh health department spokesperson told Arab News on Saturday, as the country prepared to screen thousands of other people returning from Iran which has greatly suffered from the infection.
“The patient who tested positive on February 26 has been discharged from the hospital after spending 10 days in isolation and being treated,” Meeran Yusuf, spokesperson of Sindh health department, told Arab News, adding that the man had arrived in the city on a flight from Mashhad on February 20.
“The patient has fully recovered and discharged after being tested three times,” she continued, adding that the third test was done on Friday morning and its result was clear.
Subsequently, the health authorities allowed the patient to go home.
Much like the other five confirmed patients in the country, the man contracted the virus while traveling in Iran.
“We receive hundreds of pilgrims from Iran every day who are quarantined at the border. Around 3,800 people have been quarantined since the border was sealed last month,” Liaquat Shahwani, the spokesperson of the Balochistan government, told Arab News.
Shahwani said four major quarantine facilities were established at the border, though there were several small ones near the different entry points to Pakistan. “We are fully prepared to screen and keep the pilgrims,” he informed. “But as the number of suspected cases grow, we may send them to their respective provinces to be quarantined.”
A report compiling the data of pilgrims from February 28 to March 6 shows that 3,122 persons belonging to different federating units arrived from Iran in Balochistan. Of these, the most people (1,491) hail from Punjab; 633 belong to Sindh; 590 are residents of Balochistan; 66 people are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Some eight persons belonging to Azad Kashmir and 344 hailing from Gilgit Baltistan have also arrived from Iran.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, who visited Quetta on Thursday to coordinate with the Balochistan government, said that 800 pilgrims would reach Jacobabad in upper Sindh on Sunday.
He directed the health department of his province to make arrangements to keep them at a quarantine facility anywhere in Sukkur division and provide them all necessary facilities until they finish the mandatory 14-day isolation period.
Last week, Pakistan’s State Minister for Health Dr. Zafar Mirza unveiled a “National Action Plan” to deal with the coronavirus outbreak in the country, and confirmed two more cases of the disease in Pakistan.
The plan would involve full coordination with the provinces to prevent an outbreak, Mirza said, adding that some hospitals in every province would be dedicated to patients inflicted with the disease. “We have decided to increase manpower in hospitals and asked chief secretaries to address all deficiencies in health units of their respective provinces,” he said.
All entry points to Pakistan would also be under more stringent surveillance, he added, “so that any persons coming from virus-hit countries can be quarantined for further tests.”