20 positive cases of coronavirus reported in Malaknad Division

MINGORA: Commissioner Malakand Division, Riaz Khan Mehsud, on Wednesday said that 20 positive coronavirus cases had been reported in nine districts of the division so far.

Speaking at a press conference at Jirga Hall in Saidu Sharif, the official said that 148 out of the 271 suspected patients of coronavirus reported negative, while result of 103 patients was still awaited.

He said that screening of all the 15,166 persons, who had come from foreign countries and different parts of the country, had been completed.

He said that Upper and Lower Chitral districts were until now free from coronavirus pandemic and urged the Chitralis to avoid visiting their native districts in the prevailing circumstances.

“Stay where you are now and do not take risk of endangering your own as well as of others lives during the fast-spreading pandemic of coronavirus,” Mesud advised the Chitralis.

He said that provincial and federal governments were taking proper preventive measures for the safety of people against the spread of coronavirus in the nine districts comprising of 100 million individuals.

Flanked by Swat Deputy Commissioner Saqib Raza Aslam, the commissioner said that a total of 65 quarantine centres comprising 1420 rooms had been established across the division to cope with any emergency.

He added that 47 isolation wards with a capacity of 1226 beds had also been set up for the coronavirus patients in the division.

The official said that committees had also been constituted for distribution of relief packages among the poor and deserving people in a dignified manner.