June 28, 2026 08:28 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Fresh paper leak rocks India: Maharashtra TET postponed a day before exam, over 4 lakh aspirants affected | Pune fort murder case: Siya Goyal's brother says family would have called off marriage if she had objected | Donald Trump gets a road named after him in India, says 'Thank You!' | Fresh setback for Gautam Adani? US judge asks DoJ to justify dropping criminal charges | Ram Mandir Trust chief Champat Rai resigns as alleged donation siphoning row escalates | Ram Mandir fund row deepens: 8 arrested days after BJP called allegations 'false narrative' | 'Who tied the hands of CBI?': Calcutta HC on RG Kar case; victim's mother, now BJP MLA, says she is 'deeply disturbed' | Construction comes to a standstill at nearly 700 Kolkata projects after Taratala warehouse tragedy kills 15 | World Cup shocker! Ecuador stun Germany 2-1, storm into Round of 32 | Iran-US conflict: Cargo vessel hit near Strait of Hormuz, UN agency pauses evacuation operations

Pakistan records 453 COVID19 patients, Shia pilgrims returning from Iran in lurch

| @indiablooms | Mar 20, 2020, at 10:27 am

Islamabad/IBNS: Amid rising concerns that the Pakistan government is lacking in its efforts to implement proper medical amenities needed to combat Coronavirus outbreak in the country, the number of infected people in the nation touched 453 on Friday.

So far, two people died due to the disease in the South Asian nation.

Sindh region has reported the highest number of cases at 245.

Shia pilgrims and COVID-19

Meanwhile, reports are emerging that most of the COVID19 cases in Pakistan are the Shia pilgrims who are returning from Iran.

"It seems the there is intentional effort by the state not to provide adequate medical care to these Shia patients," some critics said.

"This way thousands of Shias can be eliminated (due to disease) and Pakistan can blame it on corona," they added.

US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Alice Wells said the country will provide one million dollars to Pakistan under USAID programme to fight the virus outbreak.

The Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA) tweeted: "The U.S.-Pakistan government partnership is helping fight #COVID19. The U.S. government is responding to #COVID-19 in #Pakistan with initial $1 million in @USAID_Pakistan  funding to bolster monitoring & rapid response."

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.