Pakistan to close Chaman border with Afghanistan amid COVID-19 outbreak

F.P. Report

QUETTA: Pakistan will close its border with Afghanistan from March 2 in wake of the coronavirus outbreak in the region.

The Pak-Afghan border at Chaman will remain closed for seven days “in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus on both sides of the border in the best interest of the people of the brotherly countries”, said a notification issued by the Ministry of Interior on Saturday.

“During the period, necessary measures will be taken to safeguard the health of the people of both countries,” it added.
The move comes after Pakistan confirmed at least four novel coronavirus cases. The patients had recently traveled to Iran as part of large groups of pilgrims from Shia community.

Authorities shut schools in the southern province of Sindh, including the country’s largest city Karachi where the first case was reported, and the southwestern province of Baluchistan, which borders Iran. They also began to trace nearly 8,000 pilgrims who recently returned to the country from Iran.

The authorities kept more than 200 of the pilgrims in quarantine at the Taftan border and stepped up scanning measures at airports and other border crossing, including western Afghanistan, said government health adviser Dr Zafar Mirza.

Global outbreak

China reported a fresh spike in coronavirus infections on Sunday, as President Donald Trump urged calm after the first death on US soil and Australia registered its first fatality.

The virus has spread to more than 60 countries around the globe, prompting the World Health Organization to raise its risk assessment to its highest level.

Worldwide, nearly 3,000 people have been killed and about 87,000 infected since the virus was first detected late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

China on Sunday reported 573 new infections, the highest figure in a week after a dip. All but three of them were in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital.

While the numbers in China are still far lower than the huge daily increases reported during the first two weeks of February, COVID-19 has spread rapidly across borders, with South Korea, Italy and Iran emerging as hotspots.