Balochistan government on Sunday banned movement of Pakistani passengers to Iran in a wake of coronavirus threat. According to details, over 100 passengers have been called back to Quetta from Taftan while the local government has also directed to establish special check-posts to stop people from travelling to Iran.

Earlier, Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal had telephoned Prime Minister Imran Khan after Iran reported deaths from coronavirus. CM Balochistan informed PM that he is personally overseeing all the measures to prevent spread of coronavirus in the province and special teams have been formed to prevent the outbreak.

Jam Kamal further said that District Health Officers were directed to take all precautions and special medical teams were also deployed in Taftan and other sensitive areas.-INP

AFP adds: Pakistan on Sunday closed its land border with Iran, while Afghanistan suspended travel to the neighbouring country as fears across the region continued to grow over a jump in new coronavirus infections. Both Afghanistan and Pakistan share long, porous borders with Iran that are often used by smugglers and human traffickers, while millions of Afghan refugees currently live in the Islamic Republic - raising fears that the virus could easily spread over the border.

"To prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and protect the public, Afghanistan suspends all passenger movement (air and ground) to and from Iran," the office of the National Security Council of Afghanistan said in a statement posted on Twitter. A provincial official in Pakistan and the Frontier Corps also confirmed that the country had sealed the land border with Iran.