Qatar has temporarily banned entry from Pakistan and 13 other countries to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Entry has been temporarily suspended for people from Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria and Thailand. The country’s Government Communications Office made the announcement on Sunday after Qatar Airways suspended flights to and from Italy.
Iran’s death toll from coronavirus reached 145 on Saturday after another 21 people were confirmed to have died during the last day. Announcing the latest deaths from the virus, a health ministry official said in a televised briefing that the tally of confirmed infections had increased by more than 1,000 during the last 24 hours, totaling 5,823 by Saturday.
Another coronavirus case has emerged from Karachi, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was told during a briefing on the novel virus on Sunday. A meeting of the Sindh government’s taskforce formed to grapple with the novel coronavirus was held. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah chaired the meeting. Four suspected patients were tested for the novel virus and only one came back positive.
Facebook said it was shutting its London office and part of its Singapore base for “deep cleaning” after an employee in the Asian city-state was diagnosed with coronavirus. A staff member working at the US technology giant’s Marina One office in Singapore was on Friday diagnosed with COVID-19. Facebook has already closed its Shanghai office until further notice, while employees in Italy and South Korea have been encouraged to work from home.
Another Coronavirus case has been confirmed from Karachi, Pakistan as an elderly man tested positive on Thursday evening. With this confirmation, the total number of cases from Sindh has jumped to three and overall six in the country. Taking to Twitter last night, Federal Health Minister, Dr. Zafar Mirza. said that the 69-year-old man had returned from Iran on February 25 and was among the patients under observation.
Health officials deployed at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi are reportedly using coronavirus outbreak to make money. The officials at the airport who assess every passenger using thermal scanners have been coercing passengers, who have no symptoms of the disease whatsoever, to pay bribe. Some passengers have also revealed that the medical staff even allowed them to leave the airport without screening them for COVID-19.
Manufacturing partner of Apple, Foxconn reported its biggest monthly drop in revenue in about seven years as the coronavirus outbreak continued to play havoc with its business. The Taiwanese company, which assembles Apple’s (AAPL.O) iPhones, saw revenue sink 18.1% in February compared with a year earlier – the biggest monthly fall since March 2013 and the third straight month of decline. It warned the coronavirus epidemic would hit its bottom line in the first quarter.
Alibaba, China’s Amazon, Microsoft, gaming developer, and healthcare network, all in one just came up with an AI system for diagnosing the COVID-19 (coronavirus). The AI system developed can review 300 chest CT scans in less than 20 seconds to determine if the patient is infected or not. Currently, at least 100 healthcare facilities in China are implementing the AI solution for Coronavirus screening.
The Pakistani authorities sealed the Pak-Afghan Chaman border Monday morning over fears that the coronavirus would be spread to the country. It has been sealed for an initial period of seven days and could be extende as Afghanistan has also reported coronavirus cases. So far, the authorities have just sealed the Chaman border. The border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is still open.
The recent coronavirus outbreak is also a respiratory disease, much similar to the flu, which still claims thousands of lives each year. The seasonal flu kills around 0.1 per cent of patients as compared to two per cent of the 1918 flu strain, which had a huge fatality rate. But the more contagious coornavirus, is estimated to have the death rate at 1.4 per cent now based on 1,099 cases.