Pakistan Reports Highest One-Day Deaths 136 as Total Cases Surpassed 150,000 Mark

Wednesday’s announcement by Zafar Mirza, who advises Prime Minister Imran Khan on health issues, came as Pakistan reported 136 more COVID-19 deaths, the highest single-day fatalities.

Some 111 COVID-19 patients had lost their battle for life on Tuesday.

With the latest surge, the death toll from COVID-19 in the country has reached 2,975.

Amid no let-up in rising cases, another 5,839 people were infected by the virus over the past 24 hours across the country, raising the tally to 154,760, the data shows. Some 58,437 patients have recovered.

According to the official statistics, Pakistan has so far conducted 950,782 tests across the country.

Health authorities see the ever-increasing coronavirus cases as a consequence of the lifting of an extended lockdown late last month, warning that the country’s already weak health structure might collapse soon if the tally remains to grow at the current speed.

On Sunday, Asad Umar, minister for planning, who is also heading the country’s anti-coronavirus strategy, warned the COVID-19 cases could exceed 1 million by the end of July if the current trend persists.

Discarding the World Health Organization’s guidance for a two-week strict lockdown across the country to decrease the spread of the pandemic, Prime Minister Imran Khan, last week, stated that a “smart lockdown” was the only viable option for the South Asian nuclear state in presented situations.

The administration has moved to seal off hot spots throughout the country to hold the growing trajectory of virus cases.

The federal government has named 20 major cities that have been most swayed by the virus. The government is expected to inflict a lockdown in these areas and use Rangers personnel to guarantee residents don’t roam outside needlessly.

A top health official says Pakistan will consider the use of Britain’s new drug that experts say reduces death risk in seriously ill COVID-19 patients.

Britain reported that a clinical trial found that a cheap, widely available steroid called dexamethasone reduced deaths by up to one third in hospitalized patients who needed oxygen.

There has been an unexpected spike in the number of coronavirus cases in the nation, with almost 50,000 new cases and 800 fatalities reported during the past ten days.

The areas that have been conducted under strict lockdown actions on Tuesday are in cities such as Lahore, Peshawar, Swat, and Karachi. Only departmental stores and pharmacies have been excluded from the ambit of restrictive measures.

The other cities named by the NCOC are Quetta, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Hyderabad, Sukkar, Sialkot, Gujarat, Ghotki, Larkana, Khairpur, DG Khan and Mardan.