PESHAWAR: Adviser to Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ajmal Wazir on Tuesday said 15 people in the province had been tested positive for coronavirus.

“Those who came from Iran via Taftan have been tested positive for coronavirus,” Ajmal Wazir said while addressing a press conference regarding the novel virus’ invasion into KP. He said 65 people were tested, 15 of them were tested positive, laboratory test reports of 17 people had to be received, while rest of them were negative for the highly contagious infection.

Also Read: No positive case of coronavirus reported in KP: director general health

The CM’s adviser said the government would try its best to protect people from coronavirus. He said additional 225 zaireen were arriving from Iran in Dera Ismail Khan. He said all the people who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 had contracted the infection in abroad.

“A quarantine centre comprising 200 beds has been established at Mufti Mehmood hospital in DI Khan,” he said requesting people to avoid shaking hands.

Ajmal Wazir said the government employees above 50 years’ age had been given leaves for 15 days, while the government was mulling over completely shutting down government offices owing to coronavirus.

He said training had been postponed at police training centres. He also requested people to avoid coming to public offices including secretariat.

He said prisoners’ sentence would be reduced by two months.

“The decision we have to take is to take for protection of the masses. Our dependency on each other is a mandatory element of society,” he said.

On Mar 14, Director General Health Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Dr. Tahir Nadeem Khan had said the government had established 437 isolation beds in 18 districts of the province for suspected coronavirus patients, Radio Pakistan reported.

He had said so far no positive case of coronavirus was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Dr Tahir Nadeem Khan had said a quarantine zone had been established in Dera Ismail Khan for people coming from foreign countries.