Gilgit-Baltistan reports third coronavirus case

A 31-year-old man in Shigar district has tested positive for coronavirus, Gilgit-Baltistan focal person on coronavirus confirmed on Thursday.

According to Gilgit-Baltistan government spokesperson, a 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.

Earlier in the day, two more cases of novel coronavirus 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.

Pakistani patient identified as Muhammad Asghar is an employee in the Pakistan Embassy in Afghanistan, who was sent back to Pakistan on the special directives of the foreign office, said sources.

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.

WHO declares novel coronavirus a Pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday night declared the coronavirus outbreak, which has spread to at least 114 countries around the world, a pandemic.

“We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has issued a clarion call to governments around the world to urgently scale up their response to the novel coronavirus if they are to stand a chance of stemming its spread.

“Today’s declaration of a pandemic is a call to action – for everyone, everywhere,” the secretary general said in a statement on Wednesday evening soon after the world Health Organization (WHO) announced that the global emergency can now be described as a pandemic.