Pakistan PM takes COVID-19 test after meeting infected philanthropist

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan underwent a test for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday (April 22), days after meeting a well-known philanthropist who was diagnosed positive for the COVID-19 infection, according to a media report.

A team of doctors from the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital collected samples from the Prime Minister. The result is expected on Wednesday.

“As a responsible prime minister and a responsible citizen I am happy to announce that the prime minister has agreed to get tested on my advice,” Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital CEO Dr Faisal Sultan was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.

Sultan, who is also Khan’s personal physician and focal person on COVID-19, on Tuesday told the media, that Khan would undergo the test.

“Prime Minister Khan will undergo test of the coronavirus to show that he is a responsible citizen of this county. We will follow all protocols in place and make recommendations accordingly, he said.

Advisor on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Wednesday that the family of the Prime Minister had already tested negative.

Khan agreed for the test after Faisal Edhi, the son of late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi and chairman of the Edhi Foundation, met him last week, and has now tested positive for the coronavirus.

Saad, the son of Faisal Edhi, told the Dawn newspaper on Tuesday that his father started showing symptoms last week, soon after meeting Khan in Islamabad on April 15.

“The symptoms lasted for four days before subsiding,” Saad said.

Faisal Edhi had met Prime Minister Khan to hand over a Rs 10 million cheque for the premiers coronavirus relief fund.

The Edhi Foundation was founded by the late Abdul Sattar Edhi and is the leading charity organisation in Pakistan.

Khan will participate in an event on Thursday organised to collect donations to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

A total of 17 more people have died in Pakistan from the COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 209. The number of coronavirus cases has risen to 9,749 with 533 new infections reported as of Wednesday, the Ministry of National Health Services has said.

Pakistan’s Punjab province has reported 4,328 cases, Sindh has 3,053, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 1,345, Balochistan 495, Gilgit-Baltistan 284, Islamabad 194 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 51 patients.

So far, 118,020 tests have been done nationwide, including 5,647 in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, at least 492 Pakistanis, including 92 women, stranded in Afghanistan due to coronavirus pandemic have returned to their country from the Torkham border.

Officials said another 111 children, not registered with them as stranded persons but travelling with their parents, mostly mothers, were also allowed to enter Pakistan, the Dawn newspaper reported.