Pakistan beefed up the coronavirus screening process at airports nationwide before 20 Chinese flights landed at Islamabad International Airport.

According to the airport sources, a total of 20 flights reached directly from China to Islamabad, carrying more than 2,100 passengers.

“The health ministry has increased the screening process at the country-wide airports aimed at halting the entry of any suspected case of coronavirus in the country,” they said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the death toll from the novel coronavirus surged past 800 in mainland China on Sunday, overtaking global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic, even as the World Health Organization said the outbreak appeared to be “stabilising”.

With 89 more people dying — most in Hubei, the province at the centre of the outbreak — the toll is now higher than the 774 killed worldwide by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome nearly two decades ago, according to figures from national health authorities.

The latest data came after the WHO said the last four days had seen “some stabilising” in Hubei but warned it was “very early to make any predictions” and the figures can still “shoot up”.