Lahore/Quetta/Karachi/Peshawar (Staff Report/Agencies): The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan on Friday rose to 125,933 after 6,397 new infections were reported over the past 24 hours.
Overall, 47,382 cases were reported in Punjab, 46,828 in Sindh, 15,787 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 7,673 in Balochistan, 6,699 in Islamabad, 1,038 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 534 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
According to the government's Covid-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached 2,463 with 107 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours while around 40,247 patients have fully recovered from the disease.
Nearly one-and-a-half months after imposing the lockdown across the country, the government announced to ease the lockdown in phases, however, the number of coronavirus cases has continued to soar.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Imran Khan warned of strict action against the shopkeepers and business community who were not following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
"From now onwards I will personally monitor the situation from the PM House and take action against those sector violating coronavirus SOPs" PM Khan said and added, "If people strictly adhere to the SOPs, the country will not have to face the worst crisis".
He said track and trace policy will be adopted for the implementation of smart lockdown in the country.
Meanwhile, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding indigenous development of electro medical devices was signed between Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Health.
A ceremony in this regard was held at National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) in Islamabad on Thursday.
Ministers for Science and Technology, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza, Chairman Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) and Chief Executive Officer Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) were present on the occasion.
The framework under this mechanism would spark off innovation and local engineering solution in this field and will improve healthcare facilities.
This initiative will open way forward for the innovators to invest multiple Electro Medical equipment in Pakistani.
Currently, the electro medical devices are being regulated by DRAP and 15 ventilators are in various phases of trials. Machine trials of 4 ventilators by PEC will be completed by the end of current week.
It is pertinent to mention that the global coronavirus cases have reportedly surpassed 7.52 million and death toll tops 420,000.
