By Islamuddin Sajid
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan on Tuesday confirmed a fifth case of the deadly novel coronavirus.
"We have now 5th confirmed case of #COVID19 in federal areas. Patient is stable and is being managed well," Dr. Zafar Mirza, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, said on Twitter.
He asked the country's media to respect the privacy of the patient and their family.
According to local media, the latest case has been identified as a 45-year-old woman from the northern mountainous region of Gilgit Baltistan who had arrived from Iran a few days ago.
Soon after confirming the first case in Gilgit, the local government announced that it was closing all schools in the region until March 7 as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, local leading English daily Dawn reported.
Pakistan confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus on Feb. 26 in the port city of Karachi, where a 22-year-old male who had recently visited Iran was found to be infected.
The novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has sounded global alarms, with China, the epicenter of an outbreak, reporting at least 2,943 deaths.
Outside mainland China, the virus has spread to more than 30 countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, France, Russia, Spain, South Korea and India.
The World Health Organization, which already declared the outbreak an international health emergency, has updated the global risk level to ‘very high.’
