Pakistan on Sunday confirmed 17 new cases of the novel coronavirus, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 51, according to an official statement.
According to the Health Ministry of southern Sindh province, 16 patients who tested positive recently returned from Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“Sindh Health Department has 13 new cases of coronavirus in Sukkur. All these patients returned from Iran via Taftan were in quarantine at our facility,” the provincial ministry said on Twitter.
Earlier on Sunday, the ministry confirmed four new cases.
On Friday, Pakistan closed all educational institutions across the country for three weeks and ordered “complete” sealing of the country’s borders with neighboring Iran and Afghanistan from March 16.
Also, the traditional Pakistan Day military parade, scheduled for March 23, was canceled.
After emerging in Wuhan, China last December, the virus known as COVID-19, has spread to at least 141 countries and territories.
The global death toll from the virus has surpassed 5,700, with more than 152,000 cases confirmed worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
