Coronavirus: Pakistan closes its border with Iran

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Pakistan has closed its border with Iran after Tehran reported casualties from the deadly coronavirus, official media reported on Monday.

According to state-run Radio Pakistan, Islamabad has suspended trade activities and its citizens traveling to Iran through the five existing border gates.

The coronavirus outbreak has so far killed 12 people in Iran, with 47 confirmed cases, according to Iran's Health Ministry.

Local Pakistani authorities said the border town of Taftan, Balochistan was quarantined for coronavirus screening, while a 100-bed tent hospital was set up in the area for pilgrims coming back from Iran, the state-run media added.

"The government is in close contact with Iranian authorities to save Pakistani zaireen [pilgrims] from coronavirus," Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, minister for religious affairs and interfaith harmony, said in a statement.

Qadri added that his ministry deployed a special team in Taftan to protect Pakistani pilgrims returning from Iran from coronavirus.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has suspended flights to Beijing and Tokyo till March 15 due to death from coronavirus, the flag carrier’s spokesman Abdullah Hafeez Khan told Anadolu Agency over the phone.