LAHORE: The Punjab government has set up quarantine centers in different cities of the province to isolate suspected coronavirus patients in areas under its jurisdiction, said a spokesperson of the provincial authority on Wednesday, adding that the one established in Multan is the biggest in the country.
“The government has set up quarantine centers in Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Lahore, Muzaffargarh, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur and other cities of the province,” Sabir Bokhari, a spokesperson of the provincial administration, told Arab News. “The biggest center has been set up in Multan where 6,000 people can be kept at one time. The staff at these facilities have also been given special kits and medical equipment to deal with different emergencies.”
The provincial administration has also set up a quarantine center at Dera Ghazi Khan that can host 780 patients while another center in Bahawalpur will be able to accommodate 1,276 pilgrims coming from the Taftan border.
The centers have been set up to save citizens from the spread of coronavirus in the country. The outbreak that began in a small Chinese town of Wuhan was recently declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization due to the rising number of infections across the world.
In Punjab, the authorities declared 26 confirmed cases of coronavirus until Wednesday afternoon.
“There are 26 confirmed patients of coronavirus in the province. Out of these, 20 are pilgrims [who returned from Iran], five are from Lahore and another one is from Gujrat. Thirty-nine suspected patients are in isolation at the moment,” reads the latest bulletin by the Department of Primary and Secondary Healthcare.
The province’s apex committee on coronavirus met in Lahore on Wednesday under Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. Among others, the meeting was also attended by Corps Commander Lahore, Lt. Gen. Majid Ehsan, General Officer Commanding 10-Division, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Aneeq-ur-Rehman Malik, DG Rangers Punjab, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Amir Majeed, Law Minister Raja Basharat and Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid.
“During the meeting, the chief minister said the quarantine centers had been set up in southern Punjab and that his administration was doing its best to defeat the virus. The corps commander said that the military establishment was extending its full cooperation to the government since it was a national cause to overcome the disease,” Muhammad Rafiullah, the chief minister’s public relations officer, told Arab News. “The establishment of a quarantine center at Taftan was also considered during the meeting while another proposal to convert the Hajj terminal in Lahore into a temporary isolation unit was also reviewed.”
Fearing increase in number of suspected coronavirus cases in Lahore, the authorities recently visited the campuses of Engineering University and GC University at Kala Shah Kaku, some 19 kilometers west of Lahore, and declared them fit for setting up quarantine camps.
“The commissioner and deputy commissioner have visited the sites. These education facilities can be converted into quarantine centers, if required. Arrangements are complete to meet any urgency or emergency arising from the threat of coronavirus,” Imran Maqbool, spokesperson at the DC office in Lahore, told Arab News.
Punjab sets up biggest quarantine center in Pakistan to fight coronavirus
https://arab.news/8q37p
Punjab sets up biggest quarantine center in Pakistan to fight coronavirus
- Provincial administration officials say the facility in Multan can accommodate 6,000 patients at once
- The country's military establishment is fully cooperating with the civilian administration to defeat the pandemic, says Corpse Commander Lahore
Four people, including two policemen, killed in twin blasts in northwest Pakistan
- Attack on police van in South Waziristan and motorbike-mounted IED in Lakki Marwat hits KP province
- Violence comes amid a surge in militancy and cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: At least four people, including two policemen, were killed and about 20 others wounded in two separate blasts in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, officials said, the latest violence in a region grappling with militant violence.
One explosion targeted a police patrol van in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan district near the Afghan border, while another blast caused by explosives mounted on a motorbike struck a market area in Lakki Marwat district, according to police officials and preliminary reports.
The incidents come amid rising militant violence in Pakistan’s northwest, where authorities say armed groups operate from across the border in Afghanistan, straining relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul, with both sides engaged in a military conflict since last month.
“The control room received information in the evening about a bomb blast targeting a police van in Wana Bazaar,” a police official in the area, who did not want to be named, confirmed while speaking to Arab News over the phone.
He confirmed two deaths in the incident while saying more than 25 people had been injured.
The official said rescue teams responded promptly and shifted three seriously injured people to a nearby hospital in Wana.
In another incident during the day in Lakki Marwat, an improvised explosive device attached to a motorbike exploded near shops.
“Two people have been killed and about 10 have been injured in an IED blast in Lakki Marwat,” Raza Khan, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bannu, told Arab News.
“The deceased are identified as Shoaib Ur Rehman and Furqan Ullah,” he added. “Shoaib, the owner of the shop, was the brother of the Lakki peace committee head.”
Peace committees in the region are informal, community-based groups that work with security forces to report militant activity and maintain order, making their members frequent targets of attacks.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and expressed grief over the incidents.
“I strongly condemn the blast near a police patrolling vehicle in Wana Bazaar,” Naqvi said in a statement, confirming the killing of four people, including two police personnel.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police are on the front line in the war against terrorism,” he said, noting the force had made “unforgettable sacrifices” in the fight against militant groups.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan’s border regions in recent months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan territory — a charge Kabul denies — as cross-border tensions between the two neighbors have escalated.
