Islamabad: With the addition of 3,000 new cases of coronavirus in last 24 hours and 84 deaths in the past two days, the novel coronavirus continues to play havoc with lives in Pakistan.
From Sindh that was devastated by the worst air crash in its history a day earlier, more than 20,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported. The province has thus left even Punjab - the most populated with 100 million people - far behind. In Punjab, the number is 18,730.
According to Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Shah, during the last 24 hours, 762 new cases were registered. He said on Friday 4,336 tests were conducted, out of which 762 came back positive, taking the provincial total to 21,645.
The province has also reported 14 additional deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 354.
Of these, 155 patients are in critical condition, while 34 are on ventilators. Not only new cases of coronavirus but the overall number of deaths caused due to coronavirus has also gone up.
1,011 deaths caused
On May 21, a total of 1,017 persons affected by virus had reportedly died. On May 22, the number was 1,067 with an increase of 50 in 24 hours and on May 23 with 34 new deaths the toll was 1,011.
While talking to Gulf News on Saturday, health experts attributed this increase in number of new cases and deaths to opening of shopping malls and markets and resumption of normal life.
Another reason for this overwhelming number can be seen as increase in the testing capacities of the provinces, said the officials of health ministry.
More than 460,000 tests conducted
According to the official website of the Ministry of National Health Services, the federal and the provincial governments have conducted 460,692 tests so far while in the last 24 hours, 14,705 tests were conducted.
Highest number of deaths in KP
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), though the number of cases is relatively low - 7,391 - the number of deaths (381) reported from the province is higher than Sindh (354) and Punjab (324).
In the federal capital, as many as 91 COVID-19 cases were reported while in its twin city Rawalpindi 80 new cases have emerged.
Out of the total 1,163 active cases in Islamabad, 34 are kept in six hospitals, including Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and Federal Government Services Hospital, said officials of the capital administration. The number of deaths in Islamabad due to COVID-19 has reached 12 while in Balochistan 39 lives have been lost.
