Scanners and thermo guns: Coronavirus fear grips politicians in Sindh

‘Isolation unit’ established; special masks given to employees at Bilawal House and CM House

KARACHI: The fear of COVID-19, the mysterious viral pneumonia-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has gripped politicians and government officials as the number of confirmed cases rose to eight in the country on Monday.

As a precautionary measure, visitors at Bilawal House in Karachi and Larkana and the Chief Minister House in the Sindh capital among other residences belonging to political leaders are only being allowed to enter the premises after a thorough examination with thermal scanners and thermo guns, sources privy to the development told The Express Tribune.

Employees at the mentioned places have been provided with special face masks, said the sources, adding that an “isolation unit” has also been established at the CM House.

So far eight Pakistanis have been tested positive for COVID-19 with five of them belonging to Sindh. One has already recovered and discharged from the hospital in Karachi.

Sindh CM directs hospitals to share data of patients with symptoms of pneumonia

Confirmation of the cases has set off alarm bells as authorities scramble to screen hundreds of people who recently arrived from Iran, a major new hotspot for the virus.

The mysterious virus, which originated in a vet market of the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, has since then spread to more than 100 countries of the world, killing over 3,800 and infecting around 110,000, mostly in China thus far.

But new outbreaks in Europe, the Middle East and in Asia have fanned fears of the contagion taking hold in poor nations that lack the healthcare infrastructure to cope.

There are growing fears in Pakistan — sandwiched between China and Iran, both hotspots for the disease — over how the country would deal with the outbreak.