The country has reported over 4,000 coronavirus cases after 12 days, as 4,207 new infections emerged during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 890,391.
Last time, Pakistan reported over 4,000 cases on May 7 when 4,109 infections were registered. According to the official data provided by National Command and Control Centre (NCOC), 131 new fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the national death toll to 19,987. In addition, nationwide recoveries were recorded at 804,122. The country recorded 8.22 percent positivity rate across the country, as 51,130 tests were conducted to diagnose coronavirus in the past 24 hours. The total number of tests currently stands at 12,603,469.
Punjab remains the worst-hit province by the pandemic both in terms of cases reported as well as deaths followed by Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan.
So far, 331,102 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Punjab, 303,323 in Sindh, 128,033 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,24,223 in Balochistan, 79,789 in Islamabad, 18,469 in Azad Kashmir, and 5,452 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Furthermore, 9,640 individuals have lost their lives to the virus in Punjab, 4,854 in Sindh, 3,855 in KP, 239 in Balochistan, 740 in Islamabad, 521 in Azad Kashmir, and 107 in GB. At least 1,189 new coronavirus cases were recorded in Punjab during the past 24 hours. According to the Punjab Primary and Secondary Health Care Department, at least 77 more patients succumbed to the pandemic. The department added that at least 293,281 patients had recovered from the deadly virus as of yet, with 2,420 people recovered in the past 24 hours. The Sindh government has decided to maintain the existing coronavirus restrictions across the province amid a surge in the Covid-19 cases.
It was decided at a meeting of the provincial task force on coronavirus on Thursday that was chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and attended by provincial ministers, the chief secretary, IG, additional chief secretary home, Karachi commissioner and other officials. The chief minister said that on the day of Eid-ul-Fitr on May 13, there were 1,232 coronavirus cases in the province and after Eid on May 19, the cases were 2,076 cases, which is a 10.2 percent increase and shows that cases are increasing in Sindh. Karachi has reported 16.82 percent of these cases.
The members of the task force and experts at the meeting advised the chief minister to continue with the existing coronavirus restrictions in the province. The chief minister said if the rate of cases decreases, the restrictions will be relaxed. “If the cases increase, we will impose stricter restrictions, but we are finding it difficult to relax the restrictions [currently] in the province,” he said.
He instructed the task force members to review the situation and suggest further steps, while it was decided to maintain the current Covid-19 restrictions across the province. Separately, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani has said that the final decision about the exams for ninth and tenth classes has not been taken yet. The provincial minister also reiterated that compulsory examinations of all classes would be held and no one would be promoted without examinations this year. The ministers said this while chairing a meeting of the school education and literacy department to discuss arrangements for the coming annual exams of matriculation and intermediate.
