Prince Fahad Hospital gears up for coronavirus patients from Iran

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Prince Fahad Bin Sultan Hospital near the border with Iran is gearing up to receive patients from the neighboring country, officials at the facility said on Monday, as Iranian state TV reported that the outbreak had killed at least 12 people — the largest number of coronavirus-linked deaths outside China.

The hospital, gifted to Pakistan by Saudi Arabia, is located in Dalbandin city in the southwestern Balochistan province and is the only one in the area with isolation units. Officials at the facility said there was need for additional funding for the hospital to equip itself to adequately handle coronavirus patients. Even patients with minor illnesses were currently being referred to hospitals in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, locals said.

Coronavirus has so far killed at least 2,442 people in China, which has reported 76,936 cases, and spread to some 28 other countries and territories. Prince Fahad Hospital is the only hospital [near the Iran border] with isolation units,” the facility’s medical superintendent Dr. Iqbal Baloch told Arab News. “The hospital, however, is in need of aid in order to procure more medicines and equipment.”

Pakistan had sealed its border with Iran and started screening for coronavirus at its Taftan border, Balochistan home minister Mir Zia Ullah Langove told Arab News on Sunday.According to Badal Dashti, a district official at Taftan, over a hundred pilgrims coming in from Iran had been screened since Sunday morning whereas around 3,000 who were expected to return to Pakistan starting March 2 would be screened.

“Any person crossing the border will be kept in isolation units for some time before being declared healthy,”Dashti said.Coronavirus cases have been on the rise around the world. Afghanistan on Monday declared a state of emergency in the western province of Herat after health officials confirmed the country’s first case of coronavirus in a region that shares a border with Iran. South Koreaon Monday reported 231 more cases of the virus, bringing the nation’s total to 833 cases and seven deaths.Pakistan and Turkey temporarily closed their borders with Iran on Sunday.