Shehryar Afridi tests positive for COVID-19

Minister of State for Narcotic Control Shehryar Afridi said Saturday he had tested positive for COVID-19, as the country's infections toll surpassed 66,000.

Afridi has joined a long list of lawmakers to contract the coronavirus in Pakistan.

“I have tested positive of COVID-19 and have isolated myself at home as per advice by medics. I need prayers and blessings. May Allah almighty help save all my countrymen from the pandemic under my PM Imran Khan,” the minister tweeted on Saturday.

Earlier, Geo News had reported that PML-N MPA Rana Arif Iqbal tested positive for the virus, along with his wife and children.

“My wife and four children have also tested positive for the virus,” Iqbal said, adding that the family was self-isolating at their home.

PTI Punjab Member of Provincial Assembly  Shaheen Raza passed away, earlier this month, after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

The lawmaker had tested positive for coronavirus and was admitted to the hospital but had succumbed to the virus three days later. She was the first lawmaker in Pakistan to lose her life to COVID-19.

Previously, many politicians including ANP’s Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Sindh education minister Saeed Ghani, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, and Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari had tested positive for coronavirus, after which they went into self-isolation and recovered.

PTI's Aamir Dogar contracts COVID-19

Meanwhile, PTI's chief whip in the National Assembly Aamir Dogar also tested positive for coronavirus.

The MNA said that he went into self-isolation after testing positive and appealed to the masses to remain indoors to stem the spread of the virus.