200 quarantined near Iran border as virus fears grow
PIA spokesman says that the airline has decided to suspend its Beijing flights due to coronavirus, adding that the operation would be resumed keeping the situation in view
Pakistan began quarantining at least 200 people near the Iranian border, officials said on Monday, as fears spiralled over the growing toll from the coronavirus in the region amid allegations of a cover-up in Iran.
The quarantine announcement came hours after Pakistan sealed off its land border with Iran while neighbouring Afghanistan said it had detected its first infection.
It also came as Iranian authorities denied allegations of an official cover-up following reports that dozens of deaths had gone unreported in the country.
In Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province authorities moved fast to quarantine at least 200 people after piligrims returning from Iran entered the country and briefly interacted with other residents.
“We have decided not to take a chance and keep all of them under observation for the next 15 days,” Najeebullah Qambrani, assistant commissioner at the Taftan border crossing, told reporters, saying 250 people were being quarantined.
Balochistan’s secretary of health Mudassir Malik confirmed the quarantine but estimated that between 200 and 250 were being held.
He added that around 7,000 pilgrims had returned to Pakistan from Iran this month alone.
Afghanistan and Pakistan share long, porous borders with Iran that are often used by smugglers and human traffickers, while millions of Afghan refugees currently live in the Islamic Republic — raising fears that the virus could easily spread over the border.
Pakistan — bordered by China to the north and Iran to the south — also suffers the additional burden of having a lacklustre healthcare system following decades of under-investment by the state, leaving impoverished, rural communities especially vulnerable.
Balochistan in particular is woefully unprepared to handle a public health emergency after being beset for decades by a separatist insurgency, militant violence and neglect from the central government.
The novel coronavirus has spread to more than 25 countries, with more than 2,500 dead in China, and is causing mounting alarm due to new pockets of outbreaks in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan talked to Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Alyani and discussed options to stop the virus from entering the country. He told the chief minister to take all protective measures in the province along the porous border with Iran.
Alyani said that he was supervising all safety measures adopted by the provincial government.
Officials said the provincial health department had established an emergency centre and a control room at the bordering town of Taftan.
“Two doctors were already working at the control room at Taftan,” said an official of the health department, adding that in view of reports about deaths in Iran due to coronavirus, a team of seven doctors equipped with thermal guns had been deployed at Taftan to carry out screening of pilgrims and other people crossing into Pakistan from Iran.
“The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and health department are establishing a 100-bed tent hospital at Taftan to provide medical treatment to the suspected passengers,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has decided to suspend its flights to Beijing till March 15 because of novel coronavirus.
The national flag carrier has been opearting its Islamabad-beijing-tokyo flight twice a week.
PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said that the airline had decided to suspend its flights due to coronavirus, adding that the operation would be resumed keeping the situation in view.
Meanwhile, passengers on board a PIA flight from Islamabad to Sukkur were shocked when plane’s door opened during landing.
One of the female passengers on board the Sukkur flight said that the ATR’S flight was landing at the airport when its emergency door opened.
“It all happened when the plane touched down the runway. As the door opened, all the passengers on board started screaming while some of them started making video with the cell phone as it looked that it was not a serious thing for them.”