A rising coronavirus toll and Taftan pilgrims leave several questions unanswered

QUETTA: The ever-increasing toll of patients infected with COVID-19 coronavirus in the country has left several questions unanswered. Were the pilgrims properly screened and isolated at the Taftan quarantine camp? How did the virus spread from Taftan to other parts of the country? Who is responsible for the outbreak of the virus in Pakistan?

According to Geo News  the pilgrims were not properly isolated at the quarantine camp in Tafan where they were kept initially. The absence of coronavirus diagnostic kits at the camp made it difficult to determine who was infected with the virus.

Surprisingly, for eight to 10 days, the camp was not visited by any doctor. The medical staff at the camp — which did not comprise of any doctors — took temperatures of the pilgrims initially but did not take their blood samples due to the absence of the  kits.

Letters were written to the DG Health who in turn asked the Balochistan government's health secretary to take action against doctors who were sent to the camp but failed to reach there. The diagnostic kits arrived late at the camp and blood samples of the pilgrims were sent to a centre in Quetta for testing.

Advisor to the chief minister of Sindh on law, Barrister Murtaza Wahab said  on the morning show 'Geo Pakistan' that the pilgrims were neither properly screened nor tended to at the quarantine camp in Taftan.

'Taftan pilgrims not properly managed by government'

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also slammed the government, blaming its mismanagement at the Taftan border for the spread of the virus throughout the country.

"Sindh government's response compared to other governments was much better," he said. "According to our information, 500 pilgrims from Taftan were sent to Iran."

He said that the entire country will bear the brunt of the government's mismanagement at the Taftan border. Abbasi said that today, Punjab needed Shehbaz Sharif as chief minister and that Usman Buzdar was incapable of solving the crisis.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to 237 after Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported new cases on Tuesday.