Our Correspondent
Quetta
Pakistan has declared emergency in the areas bordering Iran amid fears of transfer of coronavirus into the country after it closed its Taftan border temporarily with Iran on Sunday morning as the number of casualties from the novel coronavirus in the neighbouring country rose to eight.
Iran on Saturday had ordered the closure of schools, universities and cultural centres as a “preventive measure” in 14 provinces across the country from Sunday.
Balochistan Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langove told a news channel that the border was temporarily closed by the authorities in light of reports of coronavirus deaths in Iran.
“Yes we have closed the border,” Langove confirmed.after the number of people infected with the deadly virus rose to 28 with five fatal cases.
Further, Balochistan government has banned movement of Pakistani passengers to Iran in a wake of coronavirus threat and over 100 passengers have been called back to Quetta from Taftan while the local government has also directed to establish special check posts to stop people from travelling to Iran.
Due to the fear of COVID-19 epidemic transferring to the country, the Balochistan government declared an emergency in the border districts. Staff and medical equipment have also been sent to the border town of Taftan, through which hundreds of people cross into the city daily.
According to the provincial health department, a team has been sent from Quetta to the city to train local officials. A camp has also been set up. The COVID-19 outbreak in Iran first surfaced on Wednesday, when authorities said it claimed the lives of two elderly people in Qom, a city south of the capital.
Fears mounted Saturday over the rise of new cases and fatalities outside China from the new coronavirus outbreak, as the World Health Organisation warned of a shrinking window to stem the spread of the deadly disease.
The warning came as the first European died from the new COVID-19 strain, which first emerged in December in central China but has now spread to over 25 countries and caused over a dozen deaths outside the country.
Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Alyani has also directed the provincial disaster management authority to establish a 100-bed tent hospital at the Pak-Iran border crossing in Taftan to cope with an emergency situation.
Assistant Commissioner of Taftan Najeebullah Qambrani said the screening of those pilgrims staying at Pakistan House has started. He added that preparations for setting up 100-bed tents in Taftan have also started and a team of doctors has arrived from Islamabad.
Meanwhile, Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri spoke to Iranian authorities about measures being taken to protect pilgrims from the novel coronavirus. A statement by the Religious Affairs Ministry said that Haq is also in touch with religious scholars and tour
groups in order to design a policy to protect the pilgrims from the disease.
The statement added that “joint teams had been constituted to protect pilgrims, travelling through the Taftan border, from the coronavirus”. “We stand by our Chinese brothers in this time of difficulty,” the statement quoted Haq as saying. Alyani had said that he was supervising all safety measures taken by the provincial government.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza also reached out to the Balochistan chief minister and assured all help and cooperation to the provincial government.
Separately, Dr Zafar Mirza held a meeting in Islamabad, where he was briefed on the situation in Iran. Dr Mirza said that the government was equipped to deal with “any eventuality of coronavirus outbreak.” The COVID-19 outbreak has claimed the lives of eight people in Iran since Wednesday. The outbreak in Iran has centred on the holy city of Qom, where officials say travellers from China brought the new coronavirus. Iranian health ministry’s spokesperson Kianoush Jahanpour added that out of 15 newly confirmed cases, seven were in Qom, while four were in the capital, Tehran.
After Pakistan and Kuwait, Turkey has also announced that it would as a precautionary measure “temporarily” close its land border with Iran as alarm grows over a spike in new coronavirus infections.
“We have decided to shut the land border temporarily after an increase in the number of cases in our neighbour Iran,” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters on Sunday. He said air traffic would be unilaterally halted from 2000 (1700 GMT).
