KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Thursday said 1500 people across Sindh had been identified to have visited Iran the following month.
“We have segregated them UC-wise and collected their data,” CM Murad Ali Shah said while addressing a press conference in Karachi.
He said if someone had coronavirus symptoms, they would be quarantined for 15 days to check if they really had contracted the deadly disease or not. He said the Sindh government had shutdown schools for two days as a precautionary measure. “The patients would immediately be isolated.”
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Murad Shah said those whom the 1500 people would have contacted would also be checked. The schools, where their children study, were also being checked, he maintained.
He said the provincial government would ensure that masks were sold at reasonable price. A control room had been established at the office of Commissioner Karachi, he said. “We will buy masks from industries and will not let them be sold in black,” he said.
The chief minister said as per reports flights from Iran were not restricted so far. However, he said, the provincial cabinet meeting had recommended ban on the flights to and from Iran. “We have to make sure that no more coronavirus suspect arrive in the country,” he said.
He asked Indus Hospital to buy a ventilator for the Sindh and the provincial government would pay for that.
Two confirmed cases have so far been reported in Pakistan and both the patients had come from Iran. First positive case was reported in Karachi in a 22-year-old male, Yahya Jafferi, with a history of travel to Iran.
CM Murad said about 8,000 people had last month visited Iran from the entire country.
He said hand wash liquids would be established at all the public places.