Samples collected from 16 contacts of COVID-19 patient

BANG: A team of health officials sent by the district administration of Upper Chitral from Booni collected samples from 16 people in Bang village where a young man tested positive upon return from Karachi a few days ago.

Moreover, the house of the patient in Upper Bang has been sealed and district administration and police officials continue visiting the neighbourhood to maintain the targeted lockdown there.

Local people told ChitralToday that two family members of the patient had tested negative when they gave samples in Booni a few days ago.

The samples collected today will be take to Booni and then sent to Peshawar for testing as there is no facility in both the districts of Lower and Upper Chitral.

There are also reports about a large number of people still returning from major cities of Pakistan and not observing quarantine for two weeks and roaming around in their villages.

The youth in Bang had returned from Karachi along with his two family members who planned a marriage ceremony at home. But on the objection of the local people, they decided to get themselves tested and the results showed one of them infected with the virus.

Though the government cannot alone restrict people’s mobility or contain the spread of the virus due the lack of resources and other impediments, citizens must play their role to check the spread of the virus for their own safety.–Abdul Nasir Khan