Lahore/Quetta/Karachi/Peshawar (Staff Report/Agencies): The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 705,517 on Thursday after 5,329 new coronavirus cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.
Overall 267,612 cases were confirmed in Sindh, 240,584 in Punjab, 94,880 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19,999 in Balochistan, 63,499 in Islamabad 5,070 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 13,873 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached to 15,124 with 98 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.
Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 623,399 after another 2,610 virus recoveries were reported.
Meanwhile, the Sindh government has decided to administer anti-coronavirus vaccine to all police personnel in the province.
According to Additional Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Welfare Sindh, all police personnel including officers will be vaccinated.
Moreover, Pakistan mulls to start the local manufacturing of Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V in collaboration with Russia in the coming months.
During a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Pakistan is looking forward to the Russian collaboration for the local production of the Sputnik V vaccine.
The Russian foreign minister said that his government had provided 50,000 doses to Pakistan and intended to provide more than 150,000 doses in the coming weeks.
Earlier, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had approved the emergency use of the Russian vaccine.
It is pertinent to mention that the global coronavirus cases have reportedly surpassed 132.046 million and death toll tops 2.867 million.
