STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE Punjab police on Tuesday put Raiwind city put under quarantine and shut down all general and medical stores, while no one is being allowed to leave their homes. Even now more than 2,200 people of the tableeghi jamaat are present in the gathering, police said. Adjacent to Raiwind city is a tableeghi mosque where it was suspected that 50 people have contracted the virus. Upon screening, it was discovered that 27 do have the virus. Many people have either been shifted to the Kala Shah Kaku quarantine facility or a quarantine facility in Kasur. A team of doctors is continuing testing of people to ascertain whether there are more people infected. Meanwhile, the nationwid tally of Covid-19 patients has crossed 1,975 with 676 cases in Sindh, 676 in Punjab, 158 in Balochistan, 253 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 148 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 58 in Islamabad and six in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The virus has so far claimed 26 lives in Pakistan, while 55 Covid-19 patients have fully recovered. Sindh’s Minister for Health and Population Welfare Dr Azra Pechuho has confirmed 49 new Covid-19 cases of local transmission, mostly among members of Tabligi Jamaat in Hyderabad, to bring the total number of cases in the province to 676. Currently, there are 128 cases in Hyderabad including 94 among Tablighi Jamaat. Karachi now has 274 coronavirus cases, whereas, Dadu and Jacobabad have one each and 41 patients have recovered while 627 are still being treated at different health facilities across the province. Sindh on Tuesday reported another Covid-19 casualty rising provincial death toll to eight. The 74-year-old patient was a resident of Karachi and was brought to hospital on March 26, where he was tested, she said in a statement. The patient had a history of acute respiratory distress syndrome and diabetes, she added. The information department of Gilgit-Baltistan has confirmed 24 new cases, raising the region’s tally to 166 on Tuesday. Two Pakistani nationals, out of a group of five, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus on their return to the country from India. They are residents of Lahore and are kept in isolation ward of Services Hospital.
