Shehryar Afridi tests positive for coronavirus

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Narcotics Shehryar Afridi has tested positive for COVID-19, joining a long list of lawmakers to contract the coronavirus in Pakistan.

“I have tested positive of COVID-19 and have isolated myself at home as per advice by medics. I need prayers and blessings. May Allah almighty help save all my countrymen from the pandemic under my PM Imran Khan,” the minister tweeted on Saturday.

Earlier, Geo News reported PML-N MPA Rana Arif Iqbal had tested positive for the virus, along with his wife and children.

“My wife and four children have also tested positive for the virus,” Iqbal said, adding that the family was self-isolating at their home.

Earlier this month, PTI Punjab Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Shaheen Raza passed away after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

The lawmaker had tested positive for coronavirus and was admitted to the hospital but had succumbed to the virus three days later. She was the first lawmaker in Pakistan to lose her life to COVID-19.

Previously, many politicians including ANP’s Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Sindh education minister Saeed Ghani, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, and Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari had tested positive for coronavirus, after which they went into self-isolation and recovered.