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First coronavirus death reported in Pakistan; cases surge to 193

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Press Trust of India Lahore
Last Updated : Mar 17 2020 | 3:22 PM IST

Pakistan reported its first casualty due to the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, health ministry officials said as the number of positive cases of the COVID-19 infections rose to 193 in the country.

The first fatality was reported from Lahore. Meanwhile, Sindh has 155 positive cases, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 15, Balochistan 10, Gilgit-Baltistan 5, Islamabad 2 and Punjab 6, officials said.

"One COVID-19 patient who was brought from Hafizabad, some 150 kms from Lahore, died here on Tuesday," Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid told a press conference here on Tuesday.

She said five new cases of the coronavirus have emerged in Punjab and as many in Sindh raising the total number of the COVID-19 infections to 193, including 155 in Sindh province.

In a statement, the National Command and Control Centre has also confirmed the first death in the country.

The patient was admitted at the Mayo Hospital in Lahore. He came here from Muscat on March 15. He was tested positive and shifted to Mayo Hospital where he died on Tuesday.

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Rashid said since all educational institutions, shrines, cinemas and etc have been closed to stop the spread of the virus, the government has been in contact with clerics to decide to close worship places. The government, she said has launched crackdown on hoarders in the wake of panic buying.

The health minister also said the patients of coronavirus may increase substantially in Punjab as some 780 suspected patients have been kept in quarantine at a university in Dera Ghazi Khan and most of them show typical symptoms of the disease.

She said these suspected patients (all of them pilgrims returning from Iran), including women, entered Pakistan from Iran through Taftan border with history of flu, fever and cough.

On young doctors' threat that they would not attend the patients because of non-availability of medical kits, Rashid said: "Today we have provided 25,000 kits at Punjab hospitals to fight this disease."

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First Published: Mar 17 2020 | 3:22 PM IST

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