ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Wednesday halted all domestic passenger flights to stop the spread of the new coronavirus after reporting nearly 1,000 cases the country, just as Libya became the latest at-risk Mideast nation to report its first infection.
The announcement by Libya's U.N.-backed government leaves just war-torn Yemen as the last country in the Mideast to not have a reported case of the new virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes.
Already, health officials have warned of the danger of the virus spread in the Arab world's poorest country, whose health care system has collapsed amid its yearslong war.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks.