Lahore/Quetta/Karachi/Peshawar (Staff Report/Agencies): The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 612,315 on Wednesday after 2,351 new coronavirus cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.
Overall 261,823 cases were confirmed in Sindh, 189,362 in Punjab, 76,819 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19,247 in Balochistan, 48,938 in Islamabad 4,965 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 11,161 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached to 13,656 with 61 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.
Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 575,867 after another 2,853 virus recoveries were reported.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government has decided to double the existing facilities for Covid-19 vaccination at Expo Centre Johar Town in Lahore following the rising number of registered senior citizens.
The decision was taken on the reports that every day the number of citizens aged 60 years or above was increasing at the Expo Centre, prompting the authorities to expand the facilities.
Consequently, the Punjab government has decided to increase the screening desks at the centre from 50 to 100, vaccination counters from 30 to 60 while the rest areas from 80 to 160.
Moreover, China will give United Nations (UN) peacekeeping troops 300,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine, the Chinese diplomatic mission to the UN said Monday, bolstering the 200,000 doses already pledged by India to protect 100,000 soldiers and police officers deployed in peace missions.
The mission said that China's ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, had told Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of the donation "to UN peacekeepers, with priority given to the peacekeeping missions in Africa."
"This is a further step to make China's vaccines a global public good, and also a demonstration of China's firm and continuous support to the UN and multilateralism," it said in a statement.
The Chinese foreign minister told the Security Council last month that his country intended to provide vaccine doses for peacekeepers, but he did not specify how many.
It is pertinent to mention that the global coronavirus cases have reportedly surpassed 119.960,000 million and death toll tops 2.656,000 million.
