18 new cases of coronavirus reported in Sindh, taking tally to 35.

KARACHI -- The 18th meeting of Taskforce on Coronavirus was told here on Sunday that out of 18 more cases of the virus diagnosed in Sindh, 13 were reported from Sukkur's quarantine center while one from Quetta, taking the total number of cases in the province to 35. Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah presided over the meeting at the CM House.

The meeting was attended by provincial ministers Dr Azra Pechuho, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Advisor Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, IGP Sindh Mushtaq Maher, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Home Secretary Usman Chachar, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shallwani, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, Secretary Health Zahid Abbasi, PDMA DG, representatives of airport services, civil aviation, FIA, 5 Corps, Rangers and other departments. It was revealed that samples of 40 pilgrims, who had arrived at Sukkur quarantine center from Taftan, were tested in Karachi, out of which samples of 13 were tested positive.

The chief minister directed the Sukkur commissioner and Dr Bhatti of Gambat Hospital to segregate those tested positive from those tested negative. 'Those who are serious should be shifted to Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences,' the CM issued the directives.

The chief minister was further told that apart from Sukkur, five more cases of coronavirus had been reported. Of these five cases, three were those who came into contact with one of the patients who had come from Saudi Arabia, while another had pneumonia symptoms while the fifth one had arrived here from Quetta with coronavirus symptoms.

The chief minister said that out of 293 suspected patients, who had arrived at Sukkur's isolation center from Taftan, 250 were still to be tested. He told the meeting that another batch of 661 pilgrims was expected to arrive in Sukkur on Tuesday (tomorrow). 'This is a serious situation and we all will have to deal with it accordingly,' he said. The CM, on the occasion, was given details of the patients who had tested positive.

He was informed that eight had travelled to Syria, three to Dubai, three to Iran while two of them had been cured, four had contracted the disease locally, two had a travel history of Saudi Arabia while one patient had come from Balochistan.

The chief minister was told that 203 samples from Sukkur had landed in Karachi while the remaining 93 were on their way. The Sindh government had conducted 339 tests, out of which 318 had been declared as negative while 21 as positive, the CM was...