Pakistan’s IT and Telecom Minister tests positive for COVID-19

PTI, Jun 16, 2020, 4:43 PM IST

Karachi: Pakistan’s Information Technology and Telecommunications Minister Syed Aminul Haq has tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday, joining a long list of politicians who have tested positive for the virus that has killed 2,839 people in the country.

Haq confirmed that he had been suffering from persistent fever for the past one week which had turned into typhoid, Geo News reported.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader, who was appointed as Minister for IT and Telecommunications on April 6, 2020, said that as soon as he became aware that he was infected with the coronavirus, he isolated himself.

The number of COVID-19 cases is increasing rapidly in the country and so far, several lawmakers have been infected with the virus.

At least four lawmakers, including a provincial minister, have died due to coronavirus in Pakistan. On Monday, Sindh’s Minister For Women Development Syeda Shehla Raza was tested positive for the coronavirus. The 56-year-old leader has gone into isolation at her residence.

Last week, former prime ministers Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Yusuf Raza Gilani tested positive for the coronavirus.

Shehbaz Sharif, chief of the Opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), was tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday after he appeared before the NAB in a money laundering case.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, PML-N leaders Ahsan Iqbal and Marriyum Aurangzeb had also tested positive for the virus.

Pakistan’s COVID-19 cases reached 148,919 after 4,443 new infections were detected, while 111 more people have succumbed to the coronavirus, pushing the death toll to 2,839, the health ministry said on Tuesday.