KARACHI: The Sindh provincial health department is expected to issue an advisory for people to avoid large public gatherings, after Sindh reported nine more cases of coronavirus, all in Karachi.

The count on Monday the highest of the epidemic since it was first detected in the country last month — took the total tally to 13 in the province and 16 in the country.

Sindh Minister of Health and Population Welfare Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho during an internal department meeting on Tuesday, according to media coordinator Meeran Yousuf, decided the following:

Sindh Health Department will be setting up its own health desk and screening at the Karachi Airport to screen all the patients coming to the city
All private and public hospitals will be setting up a frontline desk for information on coronavirus. An advisory will be issued today to avoid large public gatherings
It has been suggested to the chief minister to ban large public gatherings, like Pakistan Super League. An advisory will be issued today for people to self-quarantine for 14 days if they have recently come to Karachi from a country with positive cases. Gadap Hospital has been prepared and set up as an isolation facility for all confirmed positive cases. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) have been provided to all private hospitals on how to deal with a positive case
Shutting down schools for a longer duration has been suggested to the CM. According to Yousuf, the task force on coronavirus headed by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah will take up these points in today's meeting and decide on the future course of action.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has said that it will follow the Sindh government's directives regarding future PSL matches scheduled to be held in Karachi.

"We will follow the Sindh government's directives. However, for now the matches are still scheduled for Karachi," a PCB spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has said that the nine coronavirus cases confirmed on Monday evening are in a "stable clinical condition". "Almost all of them are asymptotic," he said on Twitter. "They all had travel history and were picked up during contact tracing of an existing #COVID19 patient," Mirza said.