Health ministry issues coronavirus alert in Pakistan
A vaccine for protection against the virus is yet to be developed.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS), Regulations and Coordination on Wednesday has issued an alert to the Disease Surveillance Division and Central Health Establishment to the possible spread of coronavirus in Pakistan after China.
According to the NHS, the notification has been issued in response to the international alert on the virus, which has spread from seafood and animals to humans.
Symptoms of the deadly virus range from fever, to coughing and difficulty breathing. The advisory maintained that health officials investigate anyone who may have had “close physical contact with a suspected or confirmed case”.
NHS has decided to establish coronavirus prevention counters at all airports. It has also been advised that people who recently visited China should also be tested for presence of the virus. The institute directed health officials to investigate a person who may have travelled to Wuhan or any other affected area of China within the last 15 days. It also directed the officials to investigate anyone who may be suffering from severe acute respiratory infections (SARI).
A vaccine for protection against the virus is yet to be developed.
A new coronavirus, a mysterious SARS-like disease, has spread around China and three other Asian countries since first emerging in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. China — where the virus originated from — has confirmed 473 cases of coronavirus, the People’s Daily Chinese newspaper said today.
The death toll remained at nine, the paper said.
The virus, which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei at the end of last year and has spread to Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the United States, Thailand, South Korea and Japan.
Timeline 2019
December 31: The World Health Organization (WHO) on December 31 last year raised alarm about the Chinese authorities of a string of pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people. Patients are quarantined and work begins on identifying the origin of the pneumonia. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies a seafood market suspected to be at the centre of the outbreak. It is closed on 1 January 2020.
January 20: A third death and more than 100 new cases are announced in China, sparking concerns ahead of the annual Lunar New Year holiday which begins January 25 and sees hundreds of millions of Chinese people travel nationwide. The virus is present in Beijing in the north, Shanghai in the east and Shenzhen in the south. More than 200 cases have been recorded. The virus is also detected in South Korea in a Chinese person who has arrived by plane from Wuhan.
January 17: A second person, a 69-year-old man, dies in Wuhan, according to the authorities. The same day, the CDC announces that it will begin screening passengers arriving from Wuhan at three airports: San Francisco, New York’s JFK and Los Angeles.
January 15: China’s health commission says no human-to-human transmission of the virus behind the Wuhan outbreak has been confirmed so far, but the possibility "cannot be excluded". The next day a first case of the virus is confirmed in Japan in someone who had stayed in Wuhan in early January.
January 13: The virus spreads beyond China’s borders for the first time with a case emerging in Thailand, according to the WHO. The victim is a Chinese woman diagnosed with mild pneumonia who was returning from a trip to Wuhan.
January 11: The Chinese health authorities say a first person has died of the virus. They revise downwards the number of sick people to 41.
January 9: the WHO says that the outbreak in Wuhan was caused by a previously unknown type of coronavirus, which is a broad family ranging from the common cold to more serious illnesses like SARS. To date 59 people have been infected of whom seven are in a serious condition, according to an official toll.
