Pakistani civil servants sacked for selfie with coronavirus patient

KARACHI: Pakistan has suspended six civil servants after they posed for a selfie with a coronavirus patient in a quarantine centre, an official said Tuesday.

The selfie -- widely shared on social media -- pictured a group of men around the apparent patient, several of them smiling broadly and none wearing face masks.

The picture was taken at a quarantine facility near Sukkur in virus-hit Sindh province, where 399 of the country's 892 COVID-19 cases have been recorded so far.

"Six of the government employees have been suspended and put into quarantine," Rana Adeel, deputy commissioner in Sukkur, told AFP. The commissioner added the six -- employees of the provincial land department -- were visiting a local politician who was in quarantine after contracting the novel coronavirus during a visit to Iran.

The suspension comes as Pakistan continued locking down large swathes of the country to battle the contagion. Sindh police reported more than 700 people had been arrested in the bustling Karachi since Monday when the province announced its lockdown.

Pakistan has a history of failing to contain infectious diseases such as polio, tuberculosis and hepatitis. So far, authorities have confirmed six deaths from coronavirus.