Gilgit Baltistan GB Local administration imposed a ban on hunting of seasonal birds in Hunza valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan region over coronavirus fears.

GB Local administration  said ban on hunting of seasonal birds in Hunza imposed due to fear of possible transmission of novel coronavirus in the country as birds are migrating from mainland China in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Gilgit Naveed Aham, DC District Nagir Shahruk Chema and Assistant Commissioner Hunza Zulqarnain Khan said that during February seasonal birds from China migrate and enter into district Hunza where they travel to district Nagi and Gilgit.

They said that local hunter are used to hunt these migrated birds and it can be so dangerous because of coronavirus in China. In this situation administration from three districts imposed section 144 for sixty days on hunting of migrated birds, they added.

Gilgit Batistan imposed section 144 on seasonal migrated birds in the first time in history.

The death toll in China from the coronavirus epidemic rose to 2,233 on Friday after 115 more people died in Hubei province, the hard-hit epicentre of the outbreak.

The vast majority of the deaths were in the provincial capital of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, according to a daily update from the Hubei health commission.

Around 75,000 people have been infected by the new coronavirus in China, and hundreds more in over 25 countries.

Earlier, the World Health Organization’s (WHO)Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva that the recent decline in the number of new cases is encouraging, but added that it was too early to know if this trend would continue.