Pakistan's number of COVID-19 confirmed cases rises to 16

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan rose to 16 after nine new patients tested positive in the country's southern port city Karachi of Sindh province, the provincial health department said late Monday night.

Health and Population Welfare Department of Sindh said in two consecutive statements that nine people had tested positive.

According to the statements, six of the new patients reached Karachi from Syria via Doha while three others came from London via Dubai, increasing the tally to 13 in Karachi. One patient was earlier discharged from a hospital in Karachi after recovering and testing negative of the virus.

Currently, at least three patients are being treated in isolation wards in the country's capital Islamabad.

The department claimed that it is in the process of tracking all the people remained in the contact of the infected people and is putting them in isolation wards.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza confirmed the new cases on Twitter, adding that "all these cases are contacts of an already confirmed case."

Pakistan has been taking stringent measures to contain the spread of the disease in the country, including a strict screening system at airports and border crossings and the closing of schools for more than two weeks in Sindh and southwest Balochistan.