Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza. Photo: File

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza on Wednesday rubbished reports of government hiding the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country.

"The reports of the government hiding the total number of confirmed cases of the virus in Pakistan are 100 per cent false," Mirza told reporters in Islamabad. "The government has also initiated a strategy to tackle the possible spread of dengue in Pakistan."

"Every little case of the common cough or flu should not be mistaken for the coronavirus," he noted. "If people get alarmed and concerned at every little illness, there will soon be a panic in the country," he said.

Mirza added, "Pakistan has thankfully managed to contain the pandemic to some extent because of the preventive measures put in place by the government. This is why we managed to contain the spread compared to other world nations."

"More than 200 people have been tested for the virus across Pakistan. Five were tested positive and their condition is improving by the day," he added.

The adviser on health also apprised reporters that the federal government was working with provincial authorities to better coordinate the response to the possible spread of the pandemic in the country.

"Scanners have been installed at airports and land ports in the country for those coming from abroad," he said.

Mirza added that people should remain optimistic about the future. "We are ready for any kind of emergency," he affirmed.

Speaking on the closure of schools, Mirza said that the health ministry had not advised the government to shut down schools in the country. "Schools in Islamabad are not closed. However, we do not have any objections to the decisions of some provincial governments to close the schools in their jurisdictions." he clarified.

Earlier the National Institute of Health Islamabad (NIH) said only five persons or 2.23 percent of the total of 224 suspected patients who were tested for coronavirus throughout the country since the first week of February 2020 have been diagnosed with the respiratory illness.

All the five coronavirus patients, who are undergoing treatment at the health facilities in Karachi and Islamabad, had a history of travelling to Iran, officials said, adding that at the moment, hundreds of people who have returned from Iran are being monitored and suspected cases are being tested for the viral disease.

The NIH Islamabad, as well as the Aga Khan University Hospital and Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Karachi, started testing for coronavirus in the first week of February 2020 after acquiring probes and primers from different international sources and soon after the Government of Pakistan declared them as the focal points for the testing and diagnosis of coronavirus or COVID-19.