ISLAMABAD, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan has risen to 20 with the emergence of two new cases in the country over the last 24 hours, official reports said on Wednesday.
The latest case appeared in north Gilgit-Baltistan area where a 14-year-old boy was tested positive of the virus, the information department of the area said on Twitter, adding that the infected person was already in the isolation ward.
The other case was reported in Quetta, the provincial capital of the country's southwest Balochistan province, where a 12-year-old boy was tested positive of the disease in Fatima Jinnah Chest Hospital, the hospital's Medical Superintendent Noorullah Khan told Xinhua.
"The boy was already suffering from thalassemia when he came to the hospital for routine treatment of his disease. During his thalassemia examinations, we also tested him of the COVID-19 as he had a history of travelling to Iran with his parents. As suspected, he was tested positive after which we conducted tests of his both parents, but luckily they are safe from the disease," Khan added.
He said that the patient is already weak because of thalassemia, but his condition is stable and doctors are taking best care of him in the isolation ward.
The country's south Sindh province is the worst-hit of the disease where 15 cases appeared including a 22-year-old university student who was discharged from the hospital after being declared the disease-free.
Three infected patients are being treated in Islamabad, while the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's health department said in a notification that 24 people were tested of the disease recently where 20 were reported negative, and results of the remaining four are awaited.
Pakistan is striving hard to control the spread of the disease, and due to the measures taken by the government, "no evidence of local spread" has been reported, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Schools have been closed in Sindh and Balochistan to avoid spread of the COVID-19, and an awareness campaign has also been launched to encourage people to protect themselves from the disease, and voluntarily visit hospital if they show symptoms of the disease.
