NSC meets today to weigh whether to declare national emergency over coronavirus outbreak

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday called a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) to decide a national action plan to counter the coronavirus outbreak declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), ARY NEWS reported.

The meeting of the country’s top civil-military body will be held at the Prime Minister House on Friday evening.

The three services chiefs, the federal ministers for interior, foreign and law affairs will be in attendance in the meeting.

The meeting will take a decision on whether or not to declare a national emergency over the virus outbreak.

Read More: Gilgit-Baltistan reports third coronavirus case

Earlier today, a 31-year-old man in Shigar district tested positive for coronavirus, Gilgit-Baltistan focal person on coronavirus confirmed.

The 31-year-old man had visited Iran and tested positive for the disease today.

This takes the total number of confirmed cases in Pakistan to 22 and three in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Prior to that, two more cases of novel coronavirus were reported at the Pak-Afghan Torkham border.

One patient is a Pakistani national and other is an Afghan national, who was sent back to his country, after detection of the deadly virus.

Read More: 64 year old cured of coronavirus after serving isolation: Murtaza Wahab

Since the start of the outbreak in late December, more than 115,000 people worldwide have contracted the coronavirus disease, resulting in the deaths of over 4,000 people. Over half of the people who contracted COVID-19 have recovered, although the number of cases is rising rapidly, in particular, across Europe.