Pandemic completes 100 days in Pakistan

The deadly contagion has affected at least 85,264 people and claimed 1,770 lives

KARACHI: Thursday saw the completion of 100 days of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Pakistan as another 82 people lost their lives to the deadly contagion in the past 24 hours.

The coronavirus – also known as Covid-19 – affected 85,264 people in the country, claimed 1,770 lives, while 30,128 individuals recovered from the respiratory illness.

A total of 615,511 tests had been conducted in these 100 days across the country.

Until now, 31,104 cases of the Covid-19 pandemic have been reported in Punjab, 32,910 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.

Pakistan reported its first case of Covid-19 on February 26 when a young man from Karachi tested positive after returning from Iran – one of the worst-hit countries by the virus.

According to the statistics, four people were affected by the Covid-19 in the last four days of February.

In March, the virus infected 2,035 individuals and claimed 26 lives.

April saw a surge in cases as 14,778 citizens were infected and 359 succumbed to the deadly illness.

May experienced an explosive rise in cases as record 52,679 people caught the virus, while 1,098 died.

Each month had been witnessing a sharp increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country.

The gravity of the situation can be assessed from the fact that during the first four days of June only, 15,767 people got infected, while 287 lost the battle against the deadly contagion.

The country has recorded a recovery rate of 35.33% of Covid-19 patients amid calls by public health experts for early action, isolation of confirmed cases, travel restrictions, massive testing and provision of face mask to everyone to stem the tide of the respiratory illness.

As the authorities eased the lockdown restrictions, Pakistan’s tally of coronavirus cases has surpassed China crossing the 85,000 mark.

China reported 82,933 cases and 4,638 deaths since the start of the Covid-19 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.

On Monday, Prime Minister Imran Khan advised the nation to learn to live with the virus until a vaccine was 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.

“A lockdown is not a cure for the coronavirus,” the prime minister told the media after chairing a meeting of National Coordination Committee in Islamabad.

“The purpose of a lockdown is to slow down the spread of virus. It is not a solution. Let me repeat, a lockdown is not a solution or treatment,” the premier said.

“This coronavirus is not going anywhere and we will have to live with it while striking a balance between poverty and lockdown,” he added.

The novel coronavirus emerged in the central China city of Wuhan towards the end of last year and proliferated to almost the whole world within a couple of months.

The Covid-19 respiratory illness caused by this mysterious contagion has so far infected more than 6.2 million people in 202 countries and territories of the world – and over 376,000 of them have died and counting.