ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday decided to close one of its most popular tourist resorts due to the threat of coronavirus.
A picturesque hill station about 30-kilometer north of Islamabad, Murree is usually frequented by local tourists on weekends and holidays.
“Murree has been closed for tourists,” Islamabad’s deputy commissioner, Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat, wrote in a Twitter post on Thursday. “Everyone is requested not to plan for another 2 weeks.”
Earlier, district administration in Rawalpindi said in statement that all “hotels, motels, restaurants, rest houses and tourist spots in Tehsil Murree District Rawalpindi will be closed forthwith till further orders in public interest” amid the rising fear of coronavirus.
Pakistan has witnessed a sharp increase in the cases of infections caused by the disease that originally emerged in a small town in China, and Prime Minister Imran Khan warned in a televised address to the nation on Tuesday that it was likely to spread further in the country.
This week, all provincial administrations also introduced several strict measures, including the lowdown of the country’s biggest city, Karachi, to curb the spread of virus.
The number of novel coronavirus cases globally stood at 207,860 with 8,657 deaths in 166 countries and territories as of Thursday.
