Govt formulates new strategy to trace symptom-free COVID-19 patients.

KARACHI -- The federal government has adopted a new strategy to trace all asymptomatic passengers with COVID-19, the mysterious viral pneumonia-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus, arriving from overseas.

Scientists have confirmed that patients start to show symptoms of coronavirus after five days of contracting the virus on average. Anyone who is symptom-free by day 12 is unlikely to get symptoms, but they may still be infectious carriers, according to the latest research.

The researchers advise suspected patients to self-isolate for 14 days to avoid spreading it to others.

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Under the new plan, health forms received from travelers at the airports would be handed over to the departments of health and surveillance. The concerned department would then be able to contact the returning travelers in their respective cities and conduct the 'follow-up medical examination'.

This would enable the authorities to identify the coronavirus patients, who appeared healthy at the time of medical examination at airports.

The government has recently accepted Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah's proposal of making it mandatory...