Coronavirus quarantine centre being set up at Islamabad airport, says Zulfi Bukhari

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister's Special Assistant on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfikar Bukhari said Wednesday the government was setting up a quarantine centre at the Islamabad International Airport to effectively handle and screen the people coming from abroad.

"The facility may handle some 300 people at a time," Bukhari informed the French Ambassador to Pakistan, Marc Barety, who called on him at the Overseas Ministry, a press release said.

Both sides discussed matters pertaining to politics and economy, as well as measures taken by Pakistani and French governments to check coronavirus.

The special assistant informed Barety that his government had allocated funds and taken different initiatives to deal with coronavirus. "Quarantine centre is being established at the Islamabad Airport,” he added.

Barety lauded the Pakistani government’s decision to set up a quarantine centre at the airport. France, he added, was carefully handling the issues relating to the evacuation its citizens from China.

Around 15,000 people in France died every year due to ‘winter flu’, he added.