Lahore/Quetta/Karachi/Peshawar (Staff Report/Agencies): The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 435,056 on Saturday after 2,729 new coronavirus cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.
Overall, 192,735 cases were reported in Sindh, 126,526 in Punjab, 51,404 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 17,696 in Balochistan, 34,014 in Islamabad, 4,775 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 7,620 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
According to the government's Covid-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached 8,724 with 71 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.
Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 381,208 after another 2,116 virus recoveries were reported.
Meanwhile, the United States (US) has authorised the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for its imminent rollout across the country, with President Donald Trump promising the first immunisations would take place “in less than 24 hours.”
“I am authorising the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine for the prevention of Covid-19,” Denise Hinton, the Food and Drug Administration's chief scientist wrote in a letter to a Pfizer executive.
US President Donald Trump immediately released a video on Twitter, where he hailed the development.
In his televised address released on Twitter, President Trump said that the first vaccine will be administered in less than 24 hours.
It is pertinent to mention that the global coronavirus cases have reportedly surpassed 69.7 million and death toll tops 1.587 million.
