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Tag: coronavirus

  • Mahira Khan, Mansha Pasha applaud healthcare workers fighting on the frontlines

    While most of us remain isolated in our homes, healthcare workers and doctors across the world are putting their lives at risk and are fighting on the frontlines against the pandemic. Mahira Khan and Mansha Pasha recently paid homage to those by sharing personal stories.

    Mahira shared that her baby cousin, Mehek is “fighting every day to save lives.”

    “Meko, I’m saluting you, thanking you and hugging you. I love you,” wrote the actor, adding, “Also a big big thank you to all the healthcare workers in Pakistan and around the world for standing on the frontlines of this pandemic.”

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B_P6BZsB_xc/?utm_source=ig_embed

    Meanwhile, Mansha said that she will share stories of frontline heroes.

    Here are some of the stories she shared:

    Earlier, Mansha had also revealed that her sister was a doctor in the United Kingdom and in a live session with The Current shared how tough it can for the workers as well as their families who are worried about their safety and health. She also said that the UK also lacks proper protective gear. But despite all the odds, her sister and other healthcare workers continue to fight against the virus which has killed thousands across the world.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B-m_Vt1lEic/
  • COVID-19: Flight carrying medical supplies from China draws heart over hospitals for healthcare workers

    COVID-19: Flight carrying medical supplies from China draws heart over hospitals for healthcare workers

    A pilot of Icelendair —  flag carrier airline of Iceland — has drawn a heart in the sky over hospitals in the capital city of Reykjavík to thank healthcare workers for their bravery and dedication during the coronavirus pandemic.

    According to The Reykjavík Grapevine — an Icelandic magazine –, during a recent flight from China, the anonymous pilot of the Boeing 767 aircraft drew a large heart with the plane’s flight path. It was an important journey of nearly 5,600 miles, as the Icelendair flight was importing much-needed medical supplies.

    Before the flight landed, the plane doubled back to doodle a heart above two of the capital city’s hospitals. Though the change in course reportedly added another nine minutes to the flight, it was a heartfelt salute for the nation’s healthcare personnel.

    The plane marked the last of three flights from China that have carried a total of some 50 tonnes of various medical supplies, including masks and protective suits, intended for Iceland’s healthcare workers treating those infected with the coronavirus.

    As of Wednesday, 1,778 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus had been reported in Iceland. The viral disease has also claimed the lives of at least ten people in the Nordic island nation.

  • PM Imran to be tested for COVID-19

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan will undergo the test for the new coronavirus after Edhi Foundation Chairperson Faisal Edhi, who had met the premier last week, tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the day.

    According to the PM’s focal person on coronavirus, Dr Faisal Sultan, the premier has been advised to get himself tested as a precautionary measure after Edhi tested positive days after meeting him to donate Rs10 million to the government’s virus relief fund.

    Edhi is in Islamabad at the moment and had insisted on being tested since he had been on the ground working with patients. His family will also undergo a test for the virus.

    Edhi had traveled to Lahore and then to Islamabad, where he had met the premier and donated a Rs10 million check on behalf of his organisation, Geo reported.

    According to his son Saad Edhi, everyone who had come in contact with him will be tested for the virus, while the social worker remains in isolation and constant contact with his doctor.

    Edhi says he had started experiencing severe headache and fever on April 16.

    Meanwhile, the host and crew of a TV show, where Edhi had made an appearance last week, has already taken the tests and advised to stay at home till results arrive.

    ‘PAKISTAN AN INDEPENDENT NATION, CAN’T STOP WORSHIPPERS’:

    Separately, the premier said the government “will take action” if safety precautions agreed upon by ulema were not followed. 

    He said that Pakistan was an “independent nation” and it could not force worshippers to not pray in mosques. 

    “The war for coronavirus is being fought by the entire country. It will not differentiate between the rich and the poor. It can happen to anyone,” he said, adding that ulema had signed a 20-point agreement with President Arif Alvi, under which mosques will be reopened with special measures in place. He, however, urged people to pray at home. 

    “I would urge my Pakistanis to stay at home and pray,” he said. “Other Muslim countries have urged their citizens to do the same. But if you have to go to mosques, keep this in mind. You will have to obey these conditions,” he added.

    The premier said if people did not follow the safety precautions and cases surged in mosques during Ramzan, the government will have no other option but to take back its decision. “The government will shut mosques if safety precautions are not followed and this was mentioned in the agreement.”

  • PM’s first official visit to Presidency for ‘most important’ meeting with Dr Alvi, ISI chief

    PM’s first official visit to Presidency for ‘most important’ meeting with Dr Alvi, ISI chief

    In what is being called the “most important” meeting, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has called on President Dr Arif Alvi in his maiden official trip to the Presidency, and the two were later joined by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General (DG) Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed.

    While an official press release says that the three discussed various domestic and international issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, precautionary arrangements for the forthcoming holy month of Ramzan and Indian aggression against people of held Kashmir, a report has quoted political quarters as terming it a meeting of the big three.

    The report that emphasised on the most important aspect of the gathering, did not drop any hint regarding it.

    The president appreciated the government steps to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country and the PM’s measures for seeking relief in the debt to be paid by the developing countries, the official version maintained.

    Later, the ISI chief also joined the meeting that condemned unprovoked Indian firing along the Line of Control (LoC). They also denounced the usurping of rights of Kashmiris in the garb of coronavirus in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK).

    The premier reportedly thanked the president and lauded his efforts to evolve a consensus among religious quarters regarding prayers and Taraweeh at mosques during Ramzan.

  • Faisal Edhi, who met PM last week, tests positive for coronavirus

    Son of the late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi and incumbent head of the Edhi Foundation, Faisal Edhi, who met Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan at the latter’s office last week, has tested positive for coronavirus, raising concerns over the health of the premier who could have contracted the virus.

    Edhi met Imran on April 15 to donate Rs10 million to the PM’s COVID-19 Relief Fund on behalf of his organisation, and a picture of the meeting had also gone viral over the internet.

    According to reports, he is in Islamabad at the moment and was tested after insisting the same, considering that he has been working in the field. His family and most people he interacted with within the past two weeks, including PM Imran, are also likely to be tested.

    His son Saad Edhi has said that his father started suffering from symptoms last week, soon after meeting the PM.

    “He is doing good and is practising self-isolation without being admitted to any hospital.”

    Earlier, Edhi had trashed criticism surrounding his donation to the government, saying the organisation could not “operate without the government’s help — be it federal or provincial”.

    In a video message shared with Independent Urdu, he had said, “I am glad that we [Edhi foundation] are working with the government.”

    READ: ‘PM didn’t recognise me,’ says Faisal Edhi, who met Imran to donate Rs1 crore

    “Edhi foundation has been working with governments since day one after the emergence of coronavirus [in the country]” he had said, adding that people would suffer if all stakeholders, at this time, did not unite to work together.

  • Meera says she wants to die in her own country, appeals to PM Imran for help

    Meera says she wants to die in her own country, appeals to PM Imran for help

    Meera, who is currently stranded in New York, has appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to help her get back to Pakistan.

    In a video message sent to Geo News, Meera said that she had gone to the United States to shoot for her upcoming film Long Distance. She shared that while the rest of her colleagues including Humayun Saeed had managed to get back home, she was stranded in New York.

    “It is 2:00 am in New York City and I am stuck in my room and addressing you (PM Imran). I had come to New York with several artists including Humayun Saeed for the shooting of a film and show. My colleagues have gone back to Pakistan but I am stuck in New York,” Meera said in the video adding that she had no savings and was running out of resources.

    Meera elaborated that New York has become one big graveyard and that recently her Chinese cameraman had also passed away. She said that she did not want to die in a foreign country. New York has reported more than 10,000 deaths from COVID-19.

    “Dear prime minister, you have always supported artists. All countries are bringing back their citizens to their homelands. I request you to please make arrangements for my repatriation to Pakistan as I wish to die in my country,” she urged.

    Speaking to this correspondent over the phone, Meera said that all actors have returned but only she and actor Saud, who is currently in Dallas, remain in the United States.

    She appealed to PM Khan and the Government of Pakistan to help her as soon as possible.

    Meanwhile, the cast and crew of Ishrat Made in China who were stranded in Thailand for almost two weeks recently returned on a special flight arranged by the government.

    Read more – Team of ‘Ishrat Made in China’ tested for COVID-19

    Thousand of Pakistanis are stuck in different countries across the world after flights were cancelled due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases. Special Assistant to the PM for Overseas Pakistanis Sayed Zulfiqar Bukhari said that more than 6500 Pakistanis will be repatriated on special flights between April 20 and 28. However, there is no flight scheduled for the United States.

  • Maria B pledges 100,000 masks to battle coronvavirus

    Maria B pledges 100,000 masks to battle coronvavirus

    Following the footsteps of Asim Jofa and Deepak Perwani, who are producing hazmat suits for healthcare workers, Maria B has also announced that her brand is producing 1000 masks a day in both cotton and 25 GSM approved fabric. However, her masks are not for healthcare workers.

    Maria has also pledged 100,000 masks “to distribute to as many people as possible and our LEA’s.”

    “Everyone needs to wear a mask. We will get through this together,” asserted the designer.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ANmUapwUd/

    Meanwhile, in a press release, Maria B said, “The brand has always taken steps to help out Pakistan and its people wherever possible. Through our Maria.B Cares initiative we have collaborated with various organisation, government and private sectors in doing what we can, be it fighting against COVID-19, providing rations, healthcare, education or the environment. We do what we can and encourage everyone to join hands and do whatever they can to build a prosperous nation.”

    The press release added that the brand is also working closely with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) by providing them with masks, industrial/pocket sanitizers, PPE suits, gloves, face shields, caps and shoe covers.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ANt2NJ5U5/

    Maria B was recently involved in a controversy after she allowed her cook, who had been tested positive for COVID-19, to travel back home on public transport. Her husband had been arrested for criminal negligence and the incident had sparked national outrage.

  • Broken seals at Wuhan lab holding 1,500 different strains of virus, including bat coronavirus

    Broken seals at Wuhan lab holding 1,500 different strains of virus, including bat coronavirus

    In a rare glimpse inside a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan amid global suspicions about the COVID-19 pandemic, scenes from the “secretive” Institute of Virology have sent shockwaves over the internet.

    According to Mail Online, pictures from inside the laboratory show a broken seal on the door of one of the refrigerators used to hold 1,500 different strains of virus, including the bat coronavirus that has jumped to humans with over 2.4 million infections and over 165,000 deaths since the first case in November last year.

    The pictures, first released by a state-owned Chinese newspaper in 2018, were also published on Twitter last month, before being deleted.

    Meanwhile, according to New York Post, the director of the lab denies that the bug accidentally spread from his facility.

    “There’s no way this virus came from us,” Yuan Zhiming, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, told state media.

    Yuan admitted that the lab is studying “different areas related to the coronavirus,” but told the English-language state broadcaster CGTN that none of his staff has been infected.

    “As people who carry out viral studies we clearly know what kind of research is going on at the institute and how the institute manages viruses and samples,” he said.

    He said that since the lab is in Wuhan “people can’t help but make associations”, but claimed that some media outlets are “deliberately trying to mislead people”.

    But officials in the past have raised concerns over the safety conditions of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

    In March 2018, US science diplomats dispatched to the lab issued two “sensitive” diplomatic cables about inadequate safety measures at the lab, the Washington Post reported, citing intelligence sources.

    The first cable warned the experiments conducted in the lab on coronavirus in bats “represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic,” according to the report.

    The cable, written by two US-China embassy officials, said there is a “serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,” according to the report.

  • Team of ‘Ishrat Made in China’ tested for COVID-19

    Team of ‘Ishrat Made in China’ tested for COVID-19

    After a long wait and some hitches along the way, the cast and crew of Ishrat Made in China including Sanam Saeed, Shamoon Abbasi, Mohib Mirza and Sara Loren have tested negative for COVID-19. They had returned from Thailand on April 14 on a special flight arranged by the Government of Pakistan after being stranded there for almost two weeks.

    Sanam took to social media to share the results and thank Deputy Commissioner Islamabad for his support and assistance. The actor also cleared the air regarding the issues they had faced upon their arrival back home.

    Read more – Shamoon Abbasi, Sanam Saeed face gross mismanagement as they arrive in Pakistan

    Shamoon also updated his fans about their results.

  • We’re on your side, dear minister

    We are all familiar with the adage that journalism is not a crime. Unfortunately, it seems that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for some reason thinks it is.

    When The Current, with pictorial evidence, reported how unhygienic the conditions at a quarantine facility in Peshawar were, and when a few journalists shared the story on social media, the government did not take it very well. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Health Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra took to Twitter and quote-tweeted journalist Benazir Shah.

    Other than questioning the report, he said:

    Targeting a well-respected journalist for tweeting a story about bad conditions at a quarantine facility in KP came as a surprise to many who had been commending both the KP government and Jhagra for their hard work in the fight against coronavirus. Jhagra could have ignored the story and not responded at all or just acknowledged the unhygienic conditions. If neither, he certainly could have responded without targeting Shah. 

    Jhagra is known to be decent and hardworking unlike many of his colleagues. Thus it came as a surprise when he targetted an accredited journalist, despite being fully aware of how the trolling brigade works. By targeting Shah specifically, he unleashed a troll army that is always ready to attack the media, especially women journalists.

    The notoriety of the ruling party’s troll army is an open secret despite official denial. Twitter trends against the media and renowned journalists have become a norm. Sharing private pictures of journalists taken from their social media accounts is another feather in the cap of these trolls. Any journalist who has attended Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s media briefings in recent days and dared to ask him a tough question, has faced online trolling and vile attacks.

    Jhagra also implied in his Twitter thread regarding The Current’s story that the “privileged” cannot bear 48 hours of discomfort as the quarantine facilities may not be ideal. Well, this wasn’t about privilege. It was about highlighting the unhygienic conditions at a quarantine facility and nothing to do with privilege. Both the privileged and the under-privileged deserve clean quarantine facilities. This problem isn’t limited to Pakistan. In neighbouring India, many such cases of poor and unclean quarantine facilities have been highlighted on social as well as mainstream media.

    We understand that the government has limited resources and it will be difficult to deal with such pressures. We also acknowledge how hard the federal, as well as provincial governments, are working to fight the coronavirus and that mistakes are unavoidable as this is something the world hasn’t seen in recent times.

    We commend the hard work of our public officials, healthcare workers, doctors, policemen, security officials and everyone out there who is working day in and day out to ensure that the people of Pakistan stay safe and healthy during the pandemic. But we will also mention and highlight facts and news so that our readers stay informed. It is not our job to only highlight the positives; we have to report the truth even if the state does not like it. Journalists cannot be bullied by online trolls or campaigns against them. The media is not your enemy; coronavirus is our common enemy. Fight the virus, don’t fight the media without any reason.

    We don’t have rose-tinted glasses on, and red flags are not just flags to us…