The number of
confirmed coronavirus cases in Pakistan swelled to 237 on Tuesday, amidst
conflicting statements by authorities on the nation's first casualty due to the
viral infection and Prime Minister Imran Khan's warning that the disease will
spread further. The Sindh province is the worst-hit with 172 cases, followed by
26 in Punjab, 16 each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, 5 in
Gilgit-Baltistan and 2 in Islamabad, officials said.
According to Meeran
Yousuf, media coordinator to the Sindh health minister, the total number of
COVID-19 cases rose to 172 in Sindh province on Tuesday. Of the 172 patients,
134 are in Sukkar, 37 in Karachi and one in Hyderabad city.
Addressing the nation on the government's
efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Imran Khan warned
that the viral infection will spread further in the country.
"I want to tell you that this virus will
spread. As you have seen, it will spread, as it is spreading in the world and
especially in countries that are far advance than us," he said in the
televised speech.
He said as part of government's measures to
combat COVID-19, 9,00,000 people have been screened so far at airports across
Pakistan.
Khan said the government rejected a proposal
to close down cities as it will hit hard poor people "will die of
hunger".
He said the government has set up a National
Coordination Committee, supported by a core panel of medical experts, to combat
the spread of coronavirus.
Khan said the government has also set up a
committee to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus.
Conflicting statements on first
coronavirus death in Pakistan
Earlier in the day, Punjab Health Minister
Yasmin Rashid in a press conference in Lahore confirmed Pakistan's first
casualty due to the novel coronavirus.
"One COVID-19 patient who was brought
from Hafizabad, some 150 km from Lahore, died here on Tuesday," he said.
In a statement, the National Command and
Control Centre also confirmed the death.
According to the statement, the patient, who
came from Muscat on March 15 and was tested positive, was admitted to Lahore's
Mayo Hospital where he died on Tuesday.
However, later in the day, Punjab Chief
Minister Usman Buzdar rejected the statements.
The chief minister in a tweet said according
to the test report, the person did not die of coronavirus.
In a statement, the Pakistan Army said all medical facilities of the armed forces were "operationalised and geared up to meet any eventuality to deal with the pandemic".
A central testing laboratory has already been
set up at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Rawalpindi, it
said, adding that COVID-19 help desks have been established at all military
hospitals.
The army chief has "directed all
commanders to take maximum necessary measures to assist civil
administration".
As the country's already fragile economy came
under more pressure due to the viral outbreak, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)
on Tuesday announced to cut its policy rate by 75 basis points to 12.50 from
13.25 to tackle the economic challenges.
Among other things, Pakistan shut down the
western border with Afghanistan and Iran. It also ordered the closure of all
educational institutions in Pakistan till April 5 in view of the virus
outbreak.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday held a
Cabinet meeting via video link, Special Assistant on Information Firdous Ashiq
Awan said.
Meanwhile, the opposition accused the
government of failing to contain the spread of virus. It also alleged that the
quarantine facilities for pilgrims who returned from Iran and kept at Taftan
border point are poor.
"The government has failed to check the
spread of coronavirus," former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told
reporters.
Pakistan can't afford Italy-like
lockdown while battling Covid-19: Imran Khan
Imran Khan on Tuesday said that had Pakistan
locked down its cities like Italy did, its population would have died of
hunger. Addressing the nation on Tuesday amid growing coronavirus cases in
Pakistan, Prime Minister Khan said that the country needs to take strong
actions to combat the pandemic.
Khan said, "If we would have locked down
our cities as Italy did, our population would have suffered. On one side we
would be battling the novel virus and on the other side we would have lost our
population due to hunger."
"We were looking at best practices from
different countries but countries like Italy showed delayed response to the
virus and when cases spiked, they put the entire country under lockdown,"
he added.
Khan also questioned the United States and
its approach to fight the spread of the virus, adding that the US also showed a
delayed response despite having the best infrastructure in the world.
He said that Pakistan was emerging from a
difficult year of economic slowdown and its textile industry had just begun to
find its moorings when the coronavirus broke out.