16 confirmed coronavirus cases across Pakistan

KARACHI: Health authorities in Sindh on Monday announced that as many as nine more persons, who had reached Karachi from Syria and England, have tested positive for COVID-19 and are being treated at three different public and private hospitals in city.

This brings the total number of cases to 13 in Sindh and 16 across the country. “Nine new cases of Coronavirus have tested positive in Karachi. Of these six patients came from Syria via Doha whereas the other three patients came from London via Dubai in the past week. The health department is in the process of tracking all the contacts down for further testing. This brings the total number of cases to 13 in Sindh out of which one was cured and discharged,” the health department spokesperson Meeran Yousuf announced on late Monday night. With the nine news cases in Sindh, total number of COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 16, officials said adding that two patients were undergoing treatment in Islamabad while one female patient was undergoing treatment at a health facility in Gilgit Baltistan. Earlier in the evening, spokesperson Meeran Yousuf announced that one person had tested positive for Coronavirus in the city, who reached Karachi from Syria via Doha on Sunday. The person is believed to a senior government official and relative of a top political personality in Sindh and is now undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the city. She also confirmed that another seven persons who reached Karachi from Syria via Doha have also been tested positive for Coronavirus in the last two days. The spokesperson maintained that all those persons who had tested positive on Sunday and Monday belong to districts, East, South and Central and were admitted to a private and two government health facilities in the city. Up till now 142 suspected people were tested for symptoms of Coronavirus and of those now 13 are confirmed to have acquired the COVID-19 infection.

“At this point of time, samples of 12 more people, who traveled to Karachi from Syria and other countries, are being analyzed and their results would be announced on Tuesday morning,” Yousaf said adding that all the contacts of these COVID-19 positive patients are also being screened and monitored.