KP govt discharges 17 people from quarantine centre

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday discharged 17 people from quarantine centre and would send home the remaining 152 “Zaireen” after completion of their 14-day period at the facility in Peshawar.

Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ali Asghar said that majority of those quarantined in Peshawar were the “Zaireen” who had come from Iran via Taftan. Those 17 people discharged from the quarantine centre were mostly policemen and drivers of the buses who had brought the “Zaireen” from Taftan and Dera Ismail Khan.

They were mostly from Peshawar and its suburbs and that’s why they were allowed to go home after completion of 15-day period in quarantine. The deputy commissioner went there and distributed sweets among them and appreciated their services in this difficult time. The provincial government had set up quarantine centres at the spacious building of Public Health Services Academy in Dauranpur, Peshawar and made satisfactory arrangements for their accommodation.

After their arrival on March 23 in Peshawar, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, along with Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra and Chief Secretary Kazim Niaz had visited the quarantine centre and directed for providing all services to them. Of 152 “Zaireen”, 49 were women, and as mentioned, the KP government had sent buses and police personnel to bring them from Taftan in Balochistan, where they had been stranded after arriving from Iran. Most of the “Zairean” belong to Kohat, Hangu, Kurram and Orakzai. Among them one person was from Batkhela and it was not clear how he stranded in Taftan. The “Zaireen” quarantined in Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan were satisfied with the arrangements the government had done for them. According to officials, among these 152 “Zaireen”, five had tested positive for coronavirus of whom three had recovered. “Their results were repeated and three tested negative. The remaining two patients admitted to the Police Services Hospital in Peshawar tested positive and would stay in the hospital,” said an official of the district administration.

The officials said that they had arranged busses to take the “Zaireen” from the quarantine centre to their respective hometowns on Tuesday. “The Zaireen were excited to return to their homes on Monday evening after completing the 14-day period in quarantine but since it was quite late and therefore for their own safety, the government decided to shift them in the day tomorrow,” said the official of Peshawar district administration.And there was another positive development when the district administration of Dera Ismail Khan closed the first quarantine centre in Darazanda after all other patients had recovered and the remaining two patients were shifted to a hospital in the city.

The KP government had first received 19 “Zaireen” from Taftan in very miserable condition and were quarantined in Category-D Hospital Darazanda. Of 19 people, 15 had tested positive for coronavirus. Meanwhile, the number of positive cases from coronavirus was rising and KP until now had recorded 409 patients of COVID-19. According to the Health Department, 16 had officially been confirmed dead of coronavirus while results of six other people who died recently were awaited.