Coronavirus cases rise to 19 in Pakistan

Pakistan witnessed a sudden increase in coronavirus cases with the number of patients rising to 19 on Tuesday, officials said.

All but one of the new 19 cases were reported from Sindh province 10 in provincial capital Karachi and one in Hyderabad, officials said. The other case was the first COVID-19 incidence in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province which borders Iran. Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza, in a morning update, said nine new cases were identified in Karachi, capital of Sindh province. “I can confirm 9 new cases of COVID19 in Karachi. This makes a total of 16 cases in Pakistan,” Mirza said. He said that “all these cases are contacts of an already confirmed case” and authorities were testing more people who were in contact with the infected people.

In the evening, media coordinator to the Sindh Health Minister Meeran Yousuf updated the total number of cases by two more. “The first case is from Hyderabad and the patient arrived from Syria via Doha. The second case is from Karachi and the patient arrived from Iran via Dubai,” she tweeted.