Lahore: With 90 new cases of the novel Coronavirus confirmed in the last 24 hours, the total number of Covid-19 patients in Pakistan shot up to 193 on Tuesday with Health Ministry officials confirming first casualty. According to reports, the fatality was reported from Lahore. Meanwhile, officials have also confirmed that country's Sindh province has 155 positive cases, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 15, Balochistan 10, Gilgit-Baltistan 5, Islamabad 2 and Punjab 6.
"One COVID-19 patient who was brought from Hafizabad, some 150 kms from Lahore, died here on Tuesday," news agency PTI quoted Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid as saying in a press conference 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, reports suggested adding that the victim came to Lahore from Muscat on March 15.
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He was tested positive and shifted to Mayo Hospital where he died on Tuesday. 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.
Prime Minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan government has been in serious line of questioning over its capability and the measures taken to prevent the spread of the novel virus.
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.
A high-alert caution has been issued in DG Khan, some 350 kms from Lahore, while several health department teams were dispatched to the southern city to isolate the patients. Meanwhile, Pakistan has decided to close down the western border with Afghanistan and Iran. It also ordered the closure of all education institutions in Pakistan till April 5 in view of the virus outbreak.
Citing country's economic crisis, Imran Khan has also urged the international community to consider writing off loans taken by Pakistan in order to help Islamabad allocating sufficient funds to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
Khan also chaired a meeting of the Pakistan's national coordination committee on Covid-19 outbreak in the country. However, no major announcements were made following the meeting. As per government data, since February, Pakistan has screened more than 975,634 people at points of entry.
The virus that first emerged in China's Wuhan city in the Hubei province in December last year has spread to 155 countries, infected 182,406 people and has claimed 7,154 lives, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus tracker.
China remains the hardest-hit with 80,881 infections and 3,226 deaths by the end of Monday. After China, Italy and Iran are the two worst-affected countries.
(With inputs from agencies)