Pakistan has launched a $595 million funding appeal, in collaboration with the UN and its partner organisations, for meeting the country’s urgent needs in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and tackling its socio-economic impact.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while speaking at the virtual launch on Thursday, said Pakistan was requesting its bilateral and multilateral partners to help it strengthen its healthcare infrastructure and create a fiscal space to deal with the challenge and its implications, reports Dawn news.

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The requirements for which the funding appeal was launched were identified in the multi-sectoral Prepa­redness and Response Plan to combat COVID-19.

The primary objective of the plan is to deal with the immediate and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on Pakistan’s health sector.

Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan has 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.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said that the railways would set up a special quarantine train comprising of 30 coaches in Balochistan.

According to authorities, Pakistan would also allow some foreign airlines to bring back about 40,000 Pakistani nationals stranded abroad.

Punjab reported 4,767 patients, Sindh 3,671, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 1,541, Balochistan 607, Gilgit-Baltistan 300, Islamabad 214 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 55 patients.

So far, 13,365 tests have been done in the country, including 6,839, during the last 24 hours.

The confirmed cases are steadily increasing and the officials have warned that the peak would reach by the end of May or beginning of June.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday said that 79 per cent of these cases have been caused by local transmission of the novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile, authorities also urged people to offer prayers at home on Friday when big congregations are held in mosques.

Pakistan has allowed conditional congregational prayers in mosques during Ramzan, endangering the drive to curb the spread of coronavirus.