Pakistan’s Covid-19 cases pass 20,000 mark

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s tally of Covid-19 cases breached the grim total of 20,000 on Sunday, as all four provinces reporting significant increases in confirmed infections. Over 450 people have died nationwide since the beginning of the outbreak.

According to a spokesperson on the Punjab Primary and Healthcare Department, 638 new cases were reported in the province taking the tally to 7,494. Following close behind is Sindh, with 363 new infections, taking its total to 7,465.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Health Minister Taimur Jhagra said 222 new cases were reported taking the province-wide tally to 3,129. Balochistan, on the other hand, has 1,172 cases. On Sunday, its health department said 126 cases have been discovered from a single neighbourhood in Quetta. Another 63 were found in a separate neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said the recovery ratio of coronavirus patients “seems to be encouraging” in the province but he warned local transmissions were “still on the rise”. Over the past 24 hours, 214 patients have recovered.

He said Larkana and Ghotki “have produced more cases of local transmission”, with 30 cases in the former and 21 in the latter. The chief minister said the local spread was quite worrisome. “We have tried to contain it but people do not care and violate the SOPs [standard operating procedures] and ignore social distancing,” he stressed.

He added that the epidemic could only be defeated when “everyone of us takes the responsibility” of securing themselves and their family.