2,000 pilgrims leave Taftan after 14-day quarantine

Chief minister directs officials to disinfect all public sector establishments

QUETTA: Around 2,000 pilgrims are set to leave the quarantine tent city in Taftan after completing the mandatory 14-day isolation period at the Pakistan House on Friday.

Sources told The Express Tribune that pilgrims belonging to Balochistan will arrive in Quetta while others will leave for their respective provinces. At least 50 buses will be escorted by the Levies and Frontier Corps personnel to the provincial capital from the Pakistan-Iran border crossing.

By March 11, the number of quarantined pilgrims in Taftan rose to 4,000 – out of which 2,000 belong to Sindh. The quarantined individuals were placed in a tent city set up by the Balochistan government for Pakistani nationals entering the country from Iran.

Pakistan shut its borders with Iran and Afghanistan on February 24 amid virus outbreak fears. A mobile lab was deployed to test suspected patients for the COVID-19 virus.

2,000 pilgrims set to arrive in Quetta post-quarantine

Meanwhile, Balochistan Governor Amanullah Khan Yasinzai directed universities across the province to remain closed till March 29 as a precautionary measure against the COVID-19 outbreak. The Balochistan government has already notified schools to extend closure till March 31.

In a tweet, Chief Minister Jam Kamal advised against public gatherings. “It’s not that we are scared or what,” he explained. “[But] we can become a carrier and spread [it] to the rest and our own families.”

Kamal also issued a notification directing commissioners and deputy commissioners to disinfect all public sector establishments “including but not limited to schools, hospitals and offices as per the SOPs related to prevention of COVID-19”.

The officials are ordered to ensure all private sector facilities such as schools, restaurants, hospitals and offices are also disinfected by the managers and owners.

The provincial government has also directed DCs to supervise the establishment of at least 50 bedded isolation and quarantine rooms/ wards by the district health officers and medical superintendents.

In another notification, the Balochistan government limited person-to-person contact by barring visitors from entering the civil secretariat and closing visitation at prisons.  Only one attendant per patient will be allowed in hospitals across the province.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative on Thursday urged people to take simple precautionary measures for prevention against coronavirus due to cold weather in Quetta.



There is absolutely no need of creating any panic and people just require taking simple preventive steps which they normally take against common flu-like covering the nose and mouth while coughing and sneezing, they said in a meeting chaired by Special Secretary Health Tahir Zafar Abbasi.

The high-level meeting also discussed the current situation of coronavirus and the reopening of schools schedule in the wake of recent snow and rainfall after which mercury dropped in Quetta.

Balochistan Education Secretary Shaukat Murghazani, Institute of Public Health Director Dr AQ Sikandar Riaz, WHO's NPO Dr Asfandyar Sherani and Balochistan DHS Additional Director Ishaq Panizai also attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2020.