Pakistan 'fully capable of diagnosing Coronavirus'

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is fully capable of diagnosing coronavirus after receiving approximately 1,000 kits from China to detect the deadly disease, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza said in a tweet on Sunday.

Earlier, in a series of tweets, Dr Mirza said one hundred and ninety nine health information booths have been set up at various airports of the country to cope with the threat of coronavirus.

199/ Health Information booths have been setup at airports to provide answers to queries about #Coronarivus and disseminate important standardized info materials. Thank you #WHOPakistan pic.twitter.com/GavwxMAXio

— Zafar Mirza (@zfrmrza) February 2, 2020

These booths will provide answers to queries about coronavirus.

According to the special assistant, another landmark in a very short time is the completion of coronavirus clinical care and prevention guidelines. It includes full instructions on case definition, inpatient/outpatient treatment, handling of diagnostic samples and even home care.

In order to provide assistance to the Pakistani community in China, the Embassy of Pakistan has established hotlines which may be contacted.

Special Assistant on National Health said around one hundred other countries are not evacuating their citizens from Wuhan.

Meanwhile, a report in local media quoted a National Institute of Health (NIH) official as saying that the testing for the virus will be carried out at the NIH in Islamabad but will later be expanded to other cities depending on the need.

A PCR-based (polymerase chain reaction) test (free of cost) will be used to isolate the genome of the virus, according to the report.