Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has reiterated his government’s tough stance against violators of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country amid a recent surge in the number of new cases.

Addressing the nation in a televised speech on Thursday, Khan said the government would take strict actions against those who are violating the SOPs as the government feared that the number of confirmed cases and deaths of COVID-19 would further rise in the coming days and likely to hit its peak at the end of July or early August, according to the reports.

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Earlier this week, Khan said that there might be difficult times ahead for the country if the people keep on taking COVID-19 as common flu, and do not follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) formed by the government to control the spread of the disease.

Pakistan has witnessed a sharp rise in the number of confirmed cases since the government lifted a weeks-long lockdown across the country last month, saying that 25 per cent of the country’s total population was facing harsh financial constraints due to lockdown.

The premier also said his government is working day and night untiringly to control the spread of the virus as well as to provide the best facilities to the needy and poor people, increasing laboratories capable to test the disease to 107 with ability to conduct 1.2 million tests per month.

“A lockdown does not mean it will end COVID-19. It can only slow down the spread of the virus. Sadly, the lockdown also slowed down the economy, creating hard times for our poor people”, PM Khan earlier said.

According to the World Health Organization recommendations, Pakistan to adopt a “two weeks off and two weeks on” lockdown strategy to slow down the current fast spread of epidemic, but Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza said that the government has to make tough policy choices to strike a balance between lives and livelihoods.

Khan had said previously that the economic losses to justify his government’s decision to lift a coronavirus lockdown despite rising infections and deaths and urged people to “live with the virus.”

The country has reported 125,933 COVID-19 cases so far, with 2,463 deaths.

Meanwhile, the global cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection touched 7,500,777 on Friday, while the death toll due to the infection rose to 4,20,993, with more than 3.5 million recoveries.