“We have now 5th confirmed case of COVID-19 in federal areas. The patient is stable and is being managed well,” Dr. Zafar Mirza, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, said on Twitter.
He asked the country’s media to respect the privacy of the patient and their family.
According to local media, the latest case has been identified as a 45-year-old woman from the northern mountainous region of Gilgit Baltistan who had arrived from Iran a few days ago.
Soon after confirming the first case in Gilgit, the local government announced that it was closing all schools in the region until March 7 as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, local leading English daily Dawn reported.
Pakistan confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus on Feb. 26 in the port city of Karachi, where a 22-year-old male who had recently visited Iran was found to be infected.
The novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has sounded global alarms, with China, the epicenter of an outbreak, reporting at least 2,943 deaths.
Pakistan confirms its fifth coronavirus positive case https://t.co/nu2UksBUPs via @Oyeyeah
— Entertainment News (@enterta48686499) March 3, 2020
Outside mainland China, the virus has spread to more than 30 countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, France, Russia, Spain, South Korea and India.
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The World Health Organization, which already declared the outbreak an international health emergency, has updated the global risk level to ‘very high.’
Pope ‘tests negative for coronavirus’: report
Pope Francis, who is suffering from a cold, has tested negative for the coronavirus, an Italian newspaper reported Tuesday, as Italy battles Europe’s worst outbreak.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni did not respond to a request for comment on the report in the Messaggero newspaper.
Francis canceled a Lent retreat for the first time in his papacy this weekend, after axing all public meetings at the end of last week over the cold.
https://twitter.com/CoronavirusPak1/status/1234779873257967617
The new coronavirus has spread from China across much of the world, with Italy among the worst affected with over 2,000 people infected and 52 deaths.
Read more: Coronavirus paranoia: German minister avoids handshake with Angela Markel
The 83-year-old pontiff has been seen coughing and blowing his nose, but the Vatican on Sunday quickly shot down speculation that the pope himself had come down with COVID-19. The Messaggero report did not say when Francis had been tested for the disease.
AFP with additional inputs from GVS News Desk