NCOC says 77 coronavirus patients died in last 24 hours

ISLAMABAD:

The daily tally of coronavirus cases in the country on Tuesday dropped below 3,000 for the first time since an exponential growth that hit 6,825 on June 13.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Covid-19, the country recorded 2,691 new cases over the past 24 hours against an average 5,000 cases per day in May and June.

With the new cases, the total number of infections has reached 234,509, with 2,306 of the patients in a critical condition.

Currently, there are 94,713 active Covid-19 cases in the country.

As many as 77 patients died of the disease in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll to 4,839. A total of 134,957 patients have recovered so far.

On June 4, the NCOC reported that 11,471 Covid-19 patients had recovered from the disease, the highest recoveries in a single day, taking the recovery rate to 55.5%.

The previous highest single-day recoveries – 9,809 – were recorded on June 12.

The government is following a strategy of smart lockdown in scores of hotspots in 20 cities in an attempt to stem the virus's spread. According to the official statistics, the country has so far conducted 1,445,153 virus tests.

At a daily meeting of the NCOC, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar and provincial chief secretaries reviewed the situation as well as a "ramp-up plan" for hospitals.

The participants of the meeting were informed that 1,227 more beds had been provided to various hospitals across the country, including 80 oxygen beds to medical facilities in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 100 in Balochistan, 100 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 320 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 330 in Punjab, 70 in Sindh and 227 in Islamabad.

Information Minister Shibli Faraz recently said the figures reflected that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s strategy of smart lockdowns was working.

“It [strategy] has successfully created a balance between saving lives from the virus and preventing starvation,” he added.

The minister said the success of the strategy could be witnessed in Islamabad and other areas of the country.

He pointed out that 771 Covid-19 cases were reported in the federal capital on June 1 and now the number had dropped to 113 because of smart lockdowns.

“People can protect themselves against coronavirus by taking precautionary measures and following SOPs,” he added. “The coronavirus threat still exists and it is our national obligation to follow the SOPs.”

The minister said the NCOC in which federal ministers, chief ministers, officers of the armed forces and medical experts regularly attended meetings, had successfully handled the pandemic.

(WITH INPUT FROM ANADOLU AGENCY)