Coronavirus quarantine facilities for over 500 persons being set up in Pindi

Rawalpindi: In the wake of an expected severe outbreak of disease caused by 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the district health department is going to establish coronavirus quarantine facilities for over 500 persons here in town to prevent spread of the disease at two different locations, one at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) and the other at Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU).

The health department is establishing the quarantine facility according to international standards in which standard operating procedures would be followed and we hope that we would be able to keep every person in need of quarantine in a separate room, said Executive District Officer (Health) Dr. Sohail Ahmed Chaudhary while talking to ‘The News’ on Thursday.

He added the quarantine facility would be operational in next 24 hours and hopefully, the health department would start keeping persons in need of quarantine in the facilities on Friday (today). The quarantine facilities are being established with a special focus on persons reaching here in the district from Iran after pilgrimage, he said.

He said to date not a single confirmed case of COVID-19 has been reported from anywhere in the district though the teams of health department are carrying out the strongest possible vigilance. Medically, a quarantine is restriction on the movement of people and goods in some cases intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests preventing the movement of those who may have been exposed to a communicable disease and suspected of carrying some infectious or contagious disease, but do not have a confirmed medical diagnosis.

Dr. Sohail said the health department has almost finalized arrangements at PMAS Arid Agriculture University and FJWU for keeping persons most of which would be ‘zaireen’ in quarantine. The health department has already established a quarantine facility in Gujar Khan on a college premises, he said.

He said as many as 10 suspected patients of COVID-19 have so far been reported from the district. Their samples were sent to NIH Islamabad for confirmation though results in all cases turned out to be negative, said the EDO.