Coronavirus screening desk set up at Islamabad Airport

• Three flights from China landed at Islamabad airport in the past 24 hours.
• Over 600 travellers from China were screened at Islamabad Airport for the coronavirus.

Amid the alarming rise in cases of Coronavirus in China, a screening desk has been set up at the Islamabad Airport on Thursday to stop the viral disease from spreading in Pakistan.

As per details, three flights from China landed at Islamabad airport in the past 24 hours. The flights arrived at Islamabad from the Chinese region of Urumqi and Beijing.

Over 600 travellers from China were screened for the Coronavirus. Fortunately, the virus was not confirmed in any passenger.

The coronavirus has caused alarm due to its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

With hundreds of millions of people travelling across China this week for the Lunar New Year holiday, the National Health Commission announced measures to contain the disease — including sterilisation and ventilation at airports and bus stations, as well as inside planes and trains.

In Chinese region of Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic, large public events were cancelled and international football games were moved to another location. Visitors were urged to stay away while residents were advised to not to leave the central city of 11 million people.

The illness is mainly transmitted via the respiratory tract and there “is the possibility of viral mutation and further spread of the disease", health commission vice minister Li Bin told a news conference in Beijing.