Pakistan among fortunate countries to see decline in COVID-19 cases: PM Imran

Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday that Pakistan is among those fortunate countries in the world where the COVID-19 cases in hospitals, particularly in intensive care units, have declined and the death rate has also decreased.

The prime minister took to Twitter Friday to shed light on the situation in Pakistan amid the coronavirus pandemic.

PM Imran credited his government's smart lockdown strategy with the decline in COVID-19 cases and said that it was also due to the people observing the safety protocols to curb the spread of the infection.

‘Continue observing SOPs to sustain positive trend’

In another tweet in the same thread, the prime minister once again urged the nation to continue observing the SOPs, which he believed is essential to sustain the positive trend.

“Eid ul Azha must be celebrated with simplicity so as not to repeat what happened last Eid when SOPs were ignored & our hospitals were choked. I am ordering strict implementation of govt SOPs,” he said.

Pakistan has started to observe a decline in the number of cases on a daily basis and death toll, according to the ministers of the country.

A day ago, federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar denied that the country is reducing its daily number of tests, saying that the increase in positive cases is slowing across the country.

Sharing statistics, the minister said that on a daily basis, the country is now reporting nearly half the number of new cases as compared to the middle of June.

Likewise, provincial and federal government ministers have seconded the prime minister regarding his statement on the results of the smart lockdown.

Parts of the country have been under the smart lockdown strategy, introduced by the government last month, in order to ensure cases drop and businesses are back on their feet.

Virus cases cross one million in India

According to AFP, coronavirus cases in India exceeded one million on Friday, official data showed. With over 600 Indians dying daily, lockdowns are being re-imposed across the country of 1.3 billion following an easing of restrictions in recent weeks on hopes the outbreak was under control.

Health ministry data released Friday put the total cases recorded at 1,003,382, a jump of almost 35,000, with 25,602 deaths after an increase of 687 — both new daily records.

India, home to some of the planet´s most densely packed cities, is the third nation to hit a million cases after the United States and Brazil, although the numbers of deaths in those two countries are far higher.