Amid spike in Covid 19 cases doubts over Pakistan's quarantine procedure emerges

Pakistan has so far reported 249 Coronavirus cases.

Sindh region has recorded 181 such cases.

"Pakistan has recorded its biggest single-day spike in coronavirus infections, taking the tally to 184, amid reports of ineffective quarantine procedures as 134 of those are reported to be among those who had been held at a quarantine camp at the country's Taftan border crossing with Iran," Aljazeera reported on Mar 16.

Pakistan, however, did not record a single death from the virus so far.

"[The spike in cases] was mainly because of the people who came from Taftan. They had been quarantined there, and then we moved them to our own facility where we tested them," Meeran Yousuf, spokesperson for Sindh province’s health minister, told Al Jazeera.

People currently in the Taftan camp told Al Jazeera they were not being adequately screened for coronavirus or treated for existing conditions. They also complained of squalid living conditions at the facility, which is housing hundreds of people.

Under current procedures, those released from the camp are being held for a further 14 days in their home provinces in separate quarantine facilities, where they will be tested if they display symptoms of the virus, Yousuf told Al Jazeera.

However, a provincial government spokesperson in Balochistan, where Taftan is, denied the claims.

"The World Health Organization protocol calls for a 14-day mandatory quarantine," Balochistan government spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani told the news channel. "People can still develop symptoms after 14 days, or even 28 days. It differs from case to case."

COVID 19 outbreak was first believed to have occurred in China and then spread to different corners of the globe.

At present people in 164 countries are hit by the disease.