Pakistan on Wednesday registered a record 40 deaths due to the coronavirus disease Covid-19, taking the total number of fatalities to 526.
The Ministry of National Health Services said that Punjab reported 8,420 cases, Sindh 8,189, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 3,499, Balochistan 1,495, Islamabad 485, Gilgit-Baltistan 386 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 76 cases.
The country detected 1,049 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours (between Tuesday and Wednesday), taking the total to 22,413, it said.
A total of 6,217 patients have recovered. So far 232,582 tests were conducted, including 10,178 in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s top decision making body the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), on Wednesday proposed easing in lockdown restrictions and the resumption of transport services across the country after May 9.
The NCOC discussed the issue of allowing public transport and opening up more business ahead of Eid festival which will be celebrated on May 24 or 25 depending on the sighting of the moon. The meeting was chaired by Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar.
But officials said that all provinces opposed the proposal in the NCOC meeting and the final decision will be taken by the Prime Minister in a meeting of National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Thursday.
The meeting, which would be attended by all chief ministers, will take the final decision about easing the lockdown.
News agency PTI reported that 180 people out of 209 passengers brought from Dubai to Pakistan tested positive and shifted to a quarantine centre in Lahore on Wednesday.
Renowned charity worker Faisal Edhi, who is the chairman of the Edhi Foundation, tweeted that he has recovered from coronavirus. He was tested positive for the novel coronavirus on April 21.
More than 3.71 million people have been reported to be infected by Covid-19 globally and 258,186 have died.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
