GILGIT / KARACHI: The dreaded novel coronavirus claimed the life of first Pakistani on Wednesday, a day when the total number of Pakistanis to be infected by it rose to 20 after detection of another case in Gilgit-Baltistan.

To the relief of health authorities and other government functionaries, the person was not in Pakistan but in Italy when he passed away. The European country has been hit particularly hard by the virus.

The whole of Italy — a country of some 60 million people — has been put under quarantine as its government has stepped up efforts to tackle the outbreak, which has killed at least 631 people and affected more than 10,000.

A statement issued by spokesperson for the Foreign Office in Islamabad said a Pakistani man — 61-year-old Imtiaz Ahmad — died of the illness in Brescia, a city in the northern Italian region of Lombardy.

The Pakistani consulate in Milan, which is about 100km from Brescia, is in touch with the family concerned as well as the relevant authorities in Italy, according to the statement.

Following the detection of another case in Gilgit-Baltistan, the total number of cases inside the country has risen to 20

The 20th person to have contracted the vir­us, with all of them currently residing inside the country, is a 14-year-old male student from Skardu. He is the fourth person from Gilgit-Baltistan to have fallen victim to the disease.

The region’s focal person for coronavirus, Dr Shah Zaman, told Dawn the student travelled to Iran recently and returned home on March 4.

The next day some health workers visited his home and detected symptoms of the virus in him. He was advised to remain indoors and restrict his interaction with even his family members.

Later, he was admitted to an isolation ward of a hospital, where some samples were taken that were sent to the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, said Dr Zaman. The results showed the 14-year-old had contracted coronavirus.

Dr Zaman said the teenager’s family members and the other people he came in contact with have also been tested for the virus but apparently they have not been infected.

The visa section of Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul was closed after detection of symptoms of the virus in a clerk working there, sources said. They said the clerk had been put under quarantine.

The section had to be closed because there’s no facility in Afghanistan for confirming coronavirus cases. It would be reopened after adequate precautionary steps have been taken, added the sources.

Meanwhile, the Sindh government has sought permission from the federal government for setting up its own quarantine facility at the Karachi airport after it claimed the arrangements made by the central government for screening out people who may have contracted the virus were inadequate.

In a letter to the federal interior minister, aviation minister and the special assistant to the prime minister on health, Sindh’s Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho called for “immediate and prompt action” on the part of federal government so that her department could set up the required facility at the earliest.

“Recently, around 14 cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Karachi; and all of them have arrived through the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi,” she said in her letter.

“In reference to this concern of the provincial government that they have not been identified on arrival at Karachi airport, a decision has been taken during an evening meeting held under the chair of honourable chief minister of Sindh to coordinate with the federal government for establishment of quarantine facility within the premises of Karachi airport already identified … so that there should be minimum journey and spread of suspected cases within urban areas, which are highly infective for transmission of virus.”

The minister pointed out that under the Constitution, the responsibility of setting up quarantines at the ports and airports lay with the federal government and in this context the Sindh health department had decided to coordinate with the federal government to ensure that none of passengers, “who were symptomatic with flu, cough, body pain, fever and shortness of breath”, could enter Sindh without screening and testing.

“It is therefore requested that necessary directions may be communicated to the concerned quarters for the establishment of quarantine facility within the premises of the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi so that health screening desks which are established at the airport by the health department, government of Sindh with the support of federal government, may immediately refer the suspected cases to the quarantine place within airport premises for the necessary screening and testing,” said the provincial minister’s letter.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2020

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