Ag Agencies
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has termed Covid-19 a global problem and called for a global effort to tackle the challenge as the Premier was confronted with a worsening virus situation at home with more than 2,000 cases in a 24-hour period.
Khan was addressing a virtual United Nations event ‘Financing for Development in Era of Covid-19 and Beyond’ on Thursday, Radio Pakistan reported.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan imposed a lockdown to limit social contacts in its bid to protect the population from the coronavirus. However this created another challenge of providing livelihood to people to save them from starvation.
The government gave a stimulus package equivalent to about eight billion dollars to provide financial help to daily wagers and people of lower income backgrounds despite its limited resources, Khan said.
The package was meagre in comparison with huge stimulus packages given by the United States, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and other developed countries. The money that Pakistan wanted to spend on climate change and development programmes was diverted towards the coronavirus pandemic, he added.
The Prime Minister said he spoke to the leadership of Ethiopia, Nigeria and Egypt and learned that they too were facing similar problems.
Khan said the coronavirus has left a bad imprint on the global economy and Pakistan was also not immune from it. He said exports of the country are badly hurt due to weak global demand.
He appreciated the steps of G20 countries to provide debt relief to developing countries. The event was hosted by Secretary General of United Nations and prime ministers of Canada and Jamaica. The debt vulnerability of developing countries was one of the six interlinked financial issues discussed at the High Level Event.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s confirmed cases of Covid-19 surpassed 62,000 on Thursday, after the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) reported more than 2,000 infections in a 24 hour-period.
This persistent rise in infections presents a bleak picture as the government insists on moving forward with reopening the economy. On May 21, just a day before the country began Eid holidays, there were 50,964 cases, according to data on the federal government’s Covid-19 portal.
As of Thursday morning, the government’s portal shows 61,227 cases -- a growth of 10,263 in week’s time. That number has since risen to 62,693 at the time of this report. At least 1,283 have died across the country after 36 more deaths linked to the virus took place in 24 hours.
Punjab confirmed 919 new cases in the province, taking its total to 22,037. It also reported 19 more deaths, taking the number of the provincial fatalities to 381. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, meanwhile, revealed that 1,103 new cases were detected in the province alone, while 16 more patients died during the last 24 hours. Sindh’s total infections number 25,309 with 396 deaths -- 1.6 per cent of total patients.
“The emergence of 1,103 cases against 4,101 tests is one of the highest figures and it shows 27 per cent positives. Therefore, we all have to ponder over as to why local spread is increasing day by day,” Shah said.
“The SOPs have been issued in the interest of our people and if their cooperation remains dismal, we won’t be able to eradicate the virus,” he added.
