Pakistan Health Ministry on Saturday expressed concerns over the regular increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which took the overall tally 7,481 with 143 deaths across the country.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza chaired a meeting of the Islamabad Healthcare Regulatory Authority on Saturday and said the regular increase in the COVID-19 cases, especially during the month of April, has raised concerns for the government, according to the media report.
According to the data released by the Ministry, the country witnessed an increase of 5,442 positive cases during the first 17 days of April, which were 2,039 by the end of March.
Mirza said the government was working to improve its capacity to carry out coronavirus tests from 6,000 to 20,000 on a daily basis by the end of the current month as it had obtained one million diagnostic kits for the disease, report said.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan extended the ongoing lockdown until the end of this month to fight the pandemic.
PM Khan, while allowing relaxation in the lockdown to allow these industries to work, warned of action if set procedures were flouted.
Earlier in the month, the government had extended partial lockdown till April 14 and constantly asking people to stay indoors and follow social distancing.
Meanwhile, Balochistan Young Doctors Association (YDA) in Balochistan province has announced to resume services after successful talks with the government.
The data showed that Pakistan has conducted at least 92,548 tests so far, and eight patients died and 465 persons tested positive during the last 24 hours across the country.
Punjab province continued to be the most affected region of the country with a total of 3,391 positive cases followed by Sindh province which has 2,217 confirmed cases.
At least 1,077 cases were registered in the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 335 in Balochistan, 250 in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, and 163 in the capital Islamabad.
Experts fear Covid-19 cases may rise further since the relaxations have been announced. They say these relaxations will bring hundreds of thousands of people to the streets, making them more vulnerable to local transmission of the deadly virus.
Meanwhile, though the Imran Khan government has announced relaxations during the lockdown, the Sindh provincial government has taken it upon itself to ensure that lockdown guidelines are observed by locals and those opening businesses are given strict SOPs to ensure social distancing.
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