Coronavirus cases in Pakistan surges to 183

Pakistan’s coronavirus cases surged to 183 on Monday after dozens of new infection were reported in Sindh province.

Official said that Sindh h 150 positive cases, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 15, Balochistan 10, Gilgit-Baltistan 5, Islamab 2 and Punjab 1.

Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab said that 119 patients were among passengers who arrived in Sukkur from Taftan.

“exponential increase is largely due to recent inflow of people brought in from Taftan after a purported quarantine," said Wahab said.

number of quarantined pilgrims in Taftan rose to 4,000 by March 11. Some of m were allowed to go ir provinces after local Balochistan government said it could t handle rush of pilgrims coming from Iran.

About around 300 people were taken to Sindh and quarantined at Sukkur to undergo tests before going to ir homes.

Sindh Chief Minister Mur Ali Shah accused in a press conference that pilgrims were t properly isolated at Taftan and were kept toger.

Meanwhile, government is taking steps to contain pandemic as authorities in Punjab province converted all public sector universities’ hostels into quarantine centres as an immediate arrangement.

Officials said that universities were informed in province to clean all hostels and shift belongings of students, if re were any, to store rooms after properly tagging m for identity.

Prime Minister's visor on Health Dr Zafar Mirza said that all educational institutions have been closed and ir staff stopped from attending institutions.

dely virus, which originated in China's Wuhan city in December, has claimed over 7,000 lives and infected more than 170,000 people over 135 countries and territories.

China remains hardest-hit with 80,860 infections and 3,213 deaths. After China, Italy and Iran are two worst-affected countries.

Pakistan's high-powered National Security Committee on Friday took several decision to boost efforts to defeat threat posed by virus.

Among or things, it decided to close down western border with Afghanistan and Iran. It also ordered closure of all education institutions in Pakistan till April 5 in view of virus outbreak.

Representative Im