FM Qureshi Self-isolating after China Trip

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that he is self-isolating after a trip to China.

He spoke to a local media channel in which he said he is self-isolating after a trip to China.

President Arif Alvi and MNA Asad Umar were among others on the same trip.

The Pakistani government advised that everyone coming from abroad self-isolate in case they have contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Before leaving we did a swab test here and when we landed the Chinese officials took a blood test, he said.

They both came back negative and they took another blood test after the meeting (with President Xi Jinping) and results haven’t come back yet, said the minister.

However, he decided to Self-isolating  as a precaution for a few days. My only interactions are over the phone, he said.

FM Qureshi said he will undergo another swab test within five days.

“I am going to follow protocol,” he said.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that China thanked Pakistan for standing by it during this difficult time during the meeting.

When the world was trying to stigmatise us, Pakistan was the first country to stand by us, he quoted President Xi as saying.

Pakistan recorded 238 coronavirus cases, with most being people who had traveled abroad.

Pakistan had made the decision not to evacuate its citizens from China, including its students in the virus epicentre of Wuhan.

You trusted us and we won’t forget it, President Xi told the Pakistani delegation.

And this was reaffirmed by the prime minister and National Peoples Committee chairman as well, said Qureshi.