ZCZC
BFF-43
CHINA-HEALTH-VIRUS-PAKISTAN
Pakistan bucks trend and resumes flights to virus-hit China
ISLAMABAD, Feb 3, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Airlines in Pakistan resumed flights to
and from China Monday after health authorities said they were confident they
had systems in place to keep the deadly coronavirus out of the country.
The move comes as dozens of global airlines are halting flight services
with China, and governments are increasingly barring entry to anyone who has
recently visited the country.
China has long been an all-weather ally of Pakistan and in recent years
has provided Islamabad with billions of dollars in loans as part of Beijing’s
global Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
Some 28,000 to 30,000 Pakistanis are living in China, and more than 500
nationals are believed to be in Wuhan, where the virus originated.
“Flight operations with China have resumed,” Zafar Mirza, a public
health advisor to Prime Minister Imran Khan, told reporters Monday.
“I personally received passengers from China this morning. I checked the
whole system step by step and we have not seen any suspected patients that
needed to be kept under observation,” he added.
The decision was questioned by medical experts in the country, where
investment in health care has been woefully lacking for decades.
“Pakistan is not capable of treating the coronavirus,” said Athar Niaz
Rana, a senior medical practitioner at Islamabad’s Shifa International
Hospitals.
“We don’t have any facility to properly test suspected cases,” he told
AFP.
So far there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Pakistan, but four
students living in Wuhan have been infected.
There are currently more than two dozen weekly flights between Pakistan
and China, civil aviation authority spokesman Abdul Sattar Khokhar said.
Prime Minister Khan has visited China three times since taking office in
2018, and has repeatedly refused to criticise Beijing when asked about the
country’s treatment of its Muslim minorities.
BSS/AFP/BZC/2100HRS