The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has allowed foreign players, who are currently in the country for the ongoing fifth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), to leave if they fear the coronavirus pandemic that continues to spread in Pakistan amid government’s efforts to contain it.
Another case being reported in Karachi on Friday took the total number of infections in Pakistan to 22. The patient is a 52-year-old who returned from Islamabad two days ago. The latest case is the first in Pakistan to have no history of foreign travel.
“PCB allows all foreign players who wish to go back to their homes to leave their contracts with #PSLV. If a significant number leave, might really dent interest in the remaining matches. But few alternative options,” journalist Hasan Zaidi tweeted.
PCB allows all foreign players who wish to go back to their homes to leave their contracts with #PSLV. If a significant number leave, might really dent interest in the remaining matches. But few alternative options.
The news comes a day after the Sindh government said the remaining matches of the popular T20 cricket championship in Karachi will be played without spectators.
“This decision has been made after consultation with all stakeholders including the Pakistan Cricket Board,” the provincial government spokesperson, Murtaza Wahab, tweeted.
#SindhGovt has decided that the remaining matches of PSL in Karachi will take place without any crowd. This decision has been made after consultation with all stakeholders including the Pakistan Cricket Board.
— Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui (@murtazawahab1) March 12, 2020
Most of Pakistan’s coronavirus cases have been reported in Sindh where authorities are taking strict measures to control the outbreak. No cases have officially been reported in Punjab, while two of the reported cases have surfaced in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday directed “all concerned to gear up preparations in support of national effort” to counter coronavirus in the country, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) reported.
The army chief chaired the 230th Corps Commanders’ Conference at General Headquarters (GHQ), which according to the military’s media-wing, discussed the emerging situation with regards to COVID-19 — the new coronavirus — and the preventive measures taken at army level.
“COAS directed all concerned to gear up preparations in support of national effort to counter this pandemic in case of any eventuality,” the ISPR said in a statement issued after the meeting.
Forum also discussed emerging situation with regards to COVID-19 and preventive measures taken at Army level. COAS directed all concerned to gear up preparations in support of national effort to counter this pandemic in case of any eventuality. (3/3)
The forum also reviewed the operational preparedness, situation along the Line of Control (LoC), geo-strategic environment and national and regional security situation with particular emphasis on the Afghanistan peace process.
“The path to regional stability and peace passes through Afghanistan. Collaborative approach and patience can help overcome all challenges for which Pakistan is ready to play its part with utmost sincerity,” the army chief emphasised.
With 22 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in Pakistan, the Sindh Government has announced that the remaining matches of the fifth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) scheduled to take place in Karachi will take place in empty stadiums and without any crowds.
Advisor to the Chief Minister on Law Murtaza Wahab made the announcement on social media.
#SindhGovt has decided that the remaining matches of PSL in Karachi will take place without any crowd. This decision has been made after consultation with all stakeholders including the Pakistan Cricket Board.
— Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui (@murtazawahab1) March 12, 2020
The National Stadium in Karachi was scheduled to host five matches, on March 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17. Today’s (March 12) clash between Karachi Kings and Lahore Qalandars is also currently taking place in the National Stadium though Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah has said that entry to the stadium will not be banned today.
However, the upcoming matches will be played behind behind closed doors to empty stadiums.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), in a press release said, “Following advice from the Sindh Government late Thursday afternoon, the Pakistan Cricket Board, has made a decision to stage the upcoming Karachi HBL Pakistan Super League 2020 matches in front of empty National Stadium. The precautionary decision has been made to better protect the health and safety of the spectators, players, officials and media.”
The release further stated, “The decision will not impact accredited commercial partners, media and other service providers, who will be allowed to enter the National Stadium. In addition, immediate families of the competing players and player support personnel, as well as franchise owners, will be allowed to attend matches.”
“In the meantime, the PCB has advised all players to avoid shaking hands and have also urged the fans not to approach the players for autographs, photographs and selfies. In addition to this, the PCB has decided the sides will not be required to shake hands with each other or opposition in the lead up to and during the matches and use a fist bump / verbal greeting instead.”
All unused tickets will be refunded as per the PCB’s ticketing policy through TCS and https://t.co/mygs1ALchM, more details to follow in due course. #HBLPSLV
As far as the matches and the final in Lahore are concerned, the board said, “With regards to the remaining fixtures in Lahore, we are already in contact with the Punjab Government and will take on board its advisory in relation to the Lahore matches.”
Earlier, netizens had urged the PCB to cancel the PSL matches.
In light of the Corona virus pandemic, I think that there is a need to rethink the merit in continuing the PSL matches. Let’s not cancel them, but play them behind closed doors for TV or if they insist on having spectators in the stadium, all of them need to be screened b4 entry.
It is also pertinent to mention here that India on Thursday ordered upcoming international cricket matches to be played in empty stadiums in a bid to control the spread of coronavirus.
The chief ministers of two states where India is due to play matches against South Africa this month “have been advised to avoid gathering of people,” RS Jhulaniya said. “Matches may go on without spectator crowd”.
Furthermore, Brijesh Patel, governing council chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the country’s premier domestic cricket tournament due to start later this month, said the organisation would meet on Saturday to discuss “all possibilities” regarding the tournament, including visas issues for overseas players and the possibility of playing matches in empty stadiums.
Sport across the world has been badly affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
After Gilgit-Baltistan reported its third patient, the number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus ‘COVID-19’ infections in Pakistan rose to 21 on Wednesday. Karachi has been the worst affected city so far, with 15 of the total confirmed cases. Of the remaining, three cases have been reported in Gilgit-Baltistan and one case has been reported each in Islamabad, Hyderabad and Quetta.
In the wake of these developments, the Sindh Health Department has said that any student or employee, who returned to the country within the last fifteen days from abroad will not be allowed to attend school, college or university till they complete their 14-day quarantine at home.
Here is the Health Department’s advisory:
1. Any student or employee of all public and private school, college or university who has arrived in Pakistan from abroad or has a family member who has arrived from abroad within last fifteen days, he/she shall not be allowed to send their children to schools, colleges and universities till they complete 14 days stay in their home after coming to Pakistan as a measure of quarantine. All parents must inform the concerned institutes if there is a history of travel of a family member.
2. Any student, family or employee of all public and private schools, colleges and universities of Sindh province having cough or body ache or fever or shortness of breath or flu shall not be allowed to enter school premises. Moreover, any employee of public and private schools, colleges and universities having Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or Asthma must avoid attending school, college or university. They should remain at their home.
3. All students and employees of public and private schools. colleges and universities must avoid gatherings and crowded spaces. There should be minimum space of 1 metre (about 3 feet) between seating at all the institutes.
4. All must perform hand hygiene frequently with soap and water or a hand sanitizer.
5. Cover your nose and mouth while sneezing or coughing with your flexed elbow or use a tissue. Dispose of the tissue immediately after use. Please avoid spitting and avoid touching your face.
6. There should be a health desk for health education, screening and awareness regarding COVID-19 to be set by students and employees of public and private schools, colleges and universities.
7. The Deputy Commissioner concerned, as per provisions under Sindh Epidemic Diseases Act 2014, may exercise his authority to ensure all these preventive measures for prevention of COVID-19 spread.
A COVID-19 Control Room has also been established at the Commissioner Office Karachi.
This 24/7 operational facility can be reached at 021-99204452, 021-99206565 and 0316-0111712.
With 20 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in Pakistan, the panic surrounding the pandemic has increased with people urging the government to take strict and timely actions to contain the virus. While all that is happening, fake news and misinformation regarding the spread of the virus is also circulating on social media, in particular, on Whatsapp.
Below is a screenshot of a message that is widely being shared on social media.
However, according to The Current’s sources, the information in the message is incorrect. To begin with, there were less than 25 students who went on the trip to Turkey. The students were individually screened and cleared by officials present at the airport when they returned to Pakistan. As a precautionary measure, all the students underwent further tests at the hospital to ensure that they don’t have the disease. According to the LUMS official Twitter account, all the results received so far are negative.
21 LUMS students recently returned from Turkey after attending a Model UN Conference. As a precaution, all of these students have been tested for COVID-19. All results received so far are negative. LUMS is putting all measures in place to ensure a safe and healthy campus.
While the rest of the results are yet to come, the students and administration is requesting the public to not spread misinformation and panic.
It is also being reported that the university has extended its mid-semester break till April 7. The break will begin on March 16, as scheduled.
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a new virus that had not been previously identified in humans. The virus causes respiratory illness (like the flu) with symptoms such as a cough, fever and in more severe cases, pneumonia. You can protect yourself by washing your hands frequently and avoiding touching your face.
It was discovered in mainland China in mid-December and has since spread globally despite efforts to contain it.
A senior journalist and analyst has left netizens in fits of laughter after claiming that the new coronavirus “probably originated in the corona city of Italy” that is the most affected by the global pandemic.
There is no city called ‘corona’ in Italy, and even if there was, we doubt it could have anything to do with the outbreak of the COVID-19 that, since its discovery in Wuhan city of China, has claimed over 4,500 lives with at least 126,000 infections.
“…it’s happening in Italy that is very much affected and corona[virus] probably originated from its corona area,” senior journalist Nazir Leghari can be heard as saying in a video doing rounds over the internet.
Corona would still have some relevance since Corona the car’s dead they stopped making em but what’s with Corona place in Italy since there’s non that I heard of ever existed? Beats me
Some even went on to explain how COVID-19 — the new coronavirus — got its name.
“The name of coronavirus comes from its shape, which resembles a crown or solar corona when imaged using an electron microscope.” (Merriam-webster dictionary)
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a new virus that had not been previously identified in humans. The virus causes respiratory illness (like the flu) with symptoms such as a cough, fever and in more severe cases, pneumonia. You can protect yourself by washing your hands frequently and avoiding touching your face.
It was discovered in mainland China in mid-December and has since spread globally despite efforts to contain it.
Oil giant Saudi Aramco has come under fire after photos, showing one of its migrant workers wearing a surgical mask and a large hand-sanitiser dispenser, went viral on social media.
Twitter users labelled the act by the oil company as “racist” and “classist” as the worker appeared to be walking around distributing sanitiser to staff members inside and outside one of its buildings in wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The humiliation & rendering of some lives as disposable apparently has no bounds. Aramco’s apology should be noted but the fact that someone in leadership thought this was appropriate to begin with speaks volumes about the public perception of migrant workers in the gulf. https://t.co/HOD21jjsxI
A foreign worker walking in the halls of Saudi oil giant #Aramco and wearing a large hand santiser dispenser shows us how modern slavery looks like. https://t.co/R7z0cl3fxy
Saudis are the worst. No, this isn’t a joke. It’s pictures of a human hand sanitizer dispenser in the offices of Saudi state oil company Aramco. https://t.co/WuGXmJHnm6
Following the backlash, the company released an official statement in which it expressed its “strong dissatisfaction with this abusive behaviour that was used to emphasise the importance of sanitization, without the approval of the company’s concerned party,” Al Jazeera reported.
“The company immediately stopped this act and took strict measures to prevent it from happening again,” the statement said.
وقد قامت الشركة على الفور بإيقاف هذا الفعل واتخاذ إجراءات صارمة تحول دون تكراره. وتؤكّد الشركة حزمها ضد المساس بقيمها المبنية على الاحترام والتمسك بأخلاقيات السلوك والتعامل.
The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has suffered a loss of Rs2 billion following the suspension of flights to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the coronavirus-triggered temporary ban on Umrah.
PIA officials told reporters on Tuesday that the airlines’ schedule had been seriously disturbed as tickets of 50,000 passengers had been cancelled so far. They further said that 34 flights to Medina and 13 to Mecca were scheduled weekly for business visa and iqama holders despite fewer passengers.
Meanwhile, after Iran and Qatar, PIA has decided to temporarily suspend flight operations to Italy to keep a check on coronavirus.
PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez said in a press release that the national carrier had temporarily suspended its flight operation to and from Milan till March 31. However, he said the passengers having the nationality of any European country could travel to Paris by PIA flights.
He said on reaching Paris, the passengers would have to manage their onward journey on their own. The passengers, who had reserved their seats for Pakistan from Milan, would have to travel to Paris on their own to catch a PIA flight.
A Sindh government spokesperson, in an exclusive conversation with The Current, has rubbished reports claiming that Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah’s brother-in-law has contracted coronavirus as the pandemic spreads across Karachi.
With nine new cases in Sindh, the total number of cases of the new coronavirus — COVID-19 — in Pakistan on Monday rose to 16, out of which two patients are undergoing treatment in Islamabad while one female patient is undergoing treatment at a health facility in Gilgit-Baltistan.
The development was followed by a private media outlet’s report that one of the persons who had tested positive for coronavirus in Karachi had reached the port city from Syria via Doha on Sunday, and was the brother-in-law of Sindh CM.
“Asif Hyder Shah is a federal secretary and is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Karachi after testing positive for COVID-19,” the report had claimed.
The claim, however, was rejected by a spokesperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government in Sindh. “Asif Hyder Shah is a federal secretary and brother-in-law of Murad Ali Shah, but he hasn’t tested positive for the virus,” the spokesperson told The Current.
While it was confirmed that seven persons who reached Karachi from Syria via Doha had tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two days, CM Murad’s brother-in-law wasn’t among them.
Meanwhile, strict measures have been taken by the government, including extending border closure with Afghanistan for seven more days and installing screening machines at all major airports in the country.
According to reports, the Sindh government is considering a proposal to issue an advisory requesting a ban on public events, including the Pakistan Super League (PSL), and it is likely that the remaining matches of the PSL to be held in Karachi will be shifted to Lahore.
A meeting of the provincial authorities has also recommended setting up a health desk at the Karachi airport.
With the help of the desk, all those entering Karachi through the airport will be screened for the coronavirus. A spokesperson for the health department said health desks will also be established at hospitals, Geo reported.
The desks at hospitals, named front-line desks, will provide up-to-date information about the spread of the virus in the city.
A recommendation to shut schools in the province for a longer period will also be sent to the Sindh CM; exams would, however, be held as per schedule, the Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah has said.
Sindh Health Department is mulling over a proposal to issue an advisory for the public and requesting a ban on public events in Karachi, including the Pakistan Super League (PSL), after nine new coronavirus cases were confirmed in the port city on Monday, followed by another two in Sindh on Tuesday.
According to Geo, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials are in touch with the Sindh government regarding the fate of the PSL matches that are to be held in Karachi over the next two weeks.
“PCB officials are in constant touch with the Sindh government and attending all the meetings regarding PSL matches in the city,” a PCB spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The spokesperson further said that the board would follow the Sindh government’s directives. “However, for now, the matches are still scheduled for Karachi.”
As per the details of the two cases surfacing Tuesday, the first case of the novel coronavirus emerged in Hyderabad. The patient had reportedly come to Pakistan from Doha via Syria. The second case of the virus emerged in Karachi, putting the total tally of cases in the port city at 15.
The total number of infections in Pakistan has now reached 18.
ENGRO SHUTS DOWN KARACHI HARBOUR FRONT OFFICES:
Engro Corporation shut down its offices in the HarbourFront building on Tuesday after an employee was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.
Engro is a Pakistani multinational conglomerate company with subsidiaries involved in production of fertilizers, foods, chemicals, energy and petrochemicals. Its major subsidiaries, Engro Fertilizers, is one of the largest fertilizer manufacturers in the world.
A statement from the corporation stated that at 1 pm on Tuesday, an employee who worked at the eighth-floor office of the building was diagnosed with the coronavirus.
The statement further said that the employee was last in the office for a few hours on Friday, March 6, 2020. The organisation said it had decided to shut its offices for three days “on medical advice from our doctor and in consultation with relevant experts”.
“Only as a precautionary measure, all Engro offices at the HarbourFront building shall remain closed over the next three days, with business to resume on Monday, March 16, 2020,” read the statement.
The organisation told its employees to work from home for the next three days and stated that upon their return, they will be screened for the novel infection.
Meanwhile, Sindh education secretary has dismissed rumours claiming that the provincial government was mulling plans to extend school holidays across the province as the coronavirus pandemic worsens.
Earlier in the day, it had been reported that the provincial health department will send a recommendation to Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah for schools to remain shut for a longer period.
Speaking to a private media outlet, Khalid Shah said the Sindh government was not considering any recommendations seeking an extension in school holidays. “All educational institutions in Sindh will re-open on March 16,” he said.
The decision was taken during a meeting of the health department held on Tuesday morning under the chair of the province’s health minister.
