Pakistan's confirmed COVID-19 cases near 177,000

Pakistan's confirmed COVID-19 cases near 177,000

Lahore/Quetta/Karachi/Peshawar (Staff Report/Agencies): The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan on Sunday rose to 176,617 after 4951 new virus cases surfaced in the country over the last twenty four hours.

Overall, 65,739 cases were reported in Punjab, 69,628 in Sindh, 21,444 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 9,328 in Balochistan, 10,662 in Islamabad, 1,278 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 813 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

According to the government's Covid-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached 3,501 with 119 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours while around 67,892 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.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said that the government will facilitate overseas Pakistanis returning home who have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at a virtual news conference, Director General of the world health agency Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the coronavirus pandemic is now in a new and dangerous phase with the disease accelerating at the same time as people tire of lockdowns.

He said more than 150,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported to WHO in a single day.

It is pertinent to mention that the global coronavirus cases have reportedly surpassed 8.60 million and death toll tops 460,000.