Coronavirus: Visa section of Pakistan's Kabul embassy closed

KABUL: The visa section of Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul has been closed after symptoms of coronavirus found in a staff member, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

According to sources, visa section of Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul has been shut down after symptoms of novel coronavirus found in a clerk of the embassy.

The embassy worker has been quarantined as a precautionary measure, sources further said.

The facility for diagnosis of the novel coronavirus not available in Afghanistan, sources said.

The visa section of the embassy in Kabul will reopen after disinfecting it, according to sources.

The movement of a suspected case of the disease to be restricted for 14 days to monitor and confirm whether he or she is infected by novel coronavirus or not.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Afghanistan has increased to seven according to a recent report.

Two new positive cases of the disease were reported in the northern province of Samangan and one more in Herat province.

According to a spokesman for Ministry of Public Health, one of the patients returned from Iran three days ago, where the number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 8,000.

The first case of the new type of coronavirus was registered in Afghanistan in late February.

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.