Pakistan provincial government denies report of first coronavirus death
- 17 Mar 2020
Pakistan's Punjab province on Wednesday denied a central government report of country's first coronavirus death.
The death was announced on a web portal the health ministry launched on Tuesday to keep a track of the spread of the virus.
The Punjab government disputed the report and said it would confirm the death after laboratory verification of the patient's test results.
Earlier, Pakistan's health ministry said on Wednesday that a coronavirus infected person had died.
The death was announced on a web portal the ministry launched on Tuesday to keep a track of the spread of the coronavirus in the South Asian nation.
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It said 195 people had tested positive in Pakistan so far.
Punjab health minister Yasmin Rashid said the patient was brought to a hospital in critical condition, and that he had a history of travelling from Iran where most of the 195 people got the infection.
Agenceis