Pakistan surpasses China in Covid-19 cases as lockdown eased across country

Over 4,600 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day rise ever

KARACHI: Pakistan's tally of coronavirus cases has surpassed China crossing 86,000 mark as the authorities eased lockdown restrictions across the country.

The nationwide tally of Covid-19 patients stands at 86,931 with 31,104 cases in Punjab, 34,577 in Sindh, 11,373 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 5,224 in Balochistan, 824 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 3,544 in Islamabad and 285 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

China has reported 82,933 cases and 4,638 deaths since the start of the outbreak last December, according to the data of Johns Hopkins University.

In Pakistan, a total of 4,688 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day rise ever, landing the country at the 17th spot in terms of coronavirus cases, the data shows.



Another 82 patients lost their lives due to Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, across the country, raising the death toll from the pandemic to 1,770. Some 30,128 patients have recovered.

According to the official statistics, authorities have so far conducted 615,511 tests across the country.

Prime Minister Imran Khan asked the nation on Monday to learn to live with the virus until a vaccine is found and exercise extra caution as the government further opened up the economy, stressing that a lockdown was not the cure for the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We had to stop the spread of virus while considering the needs of the
marginalised segment of society,” he had said, adding” “This coronavirus is not going anywhere and we will have to live with it while striking a balance between poverty and lockdown.”

With input from News Desk