Earlier on Monday, Pakistan’s Opposition parties accused Imran Khan’s government of mishandling the coronavirus crisis.
People gather in front of a closed market waiting for the reopening after the government eased the nationwide lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Lahore on May 9, 2020. (Photo by ARIF ALI / AFP)
Pakistan has reported a total of 34,337 COVID-19 cases, with 12,610 in Sindh, 5,021 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 2,158 in Balochistan, 475 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 759 in Islamabad, according to the health official on Wednesday.
So far, the virus has claimed at least 737 lives, while at least 8,812 coronavirus patients have recovered in Pakistan.
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The country, despite its close proximity with China, remained coronavirus-free until February 26 when a young man from Karachi tested positive after returning from Iran — one of the worst-hit countries. After a brief hiatus following the first case, COVID-19 cases spiked as more pilgrims returning from Iran tested positive for the virus, the Express Tribune reported.
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Earlier on Monday, Pakistan’s Opposition parties accused Imran Khan’s government of mishandling the coronavirus crisis.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi defended the government’s handling of the pandemic, saying the situation of COVID-19 in Pakistan was different as compared to Europe and the United States.
“Our death and infection rate is 2.17 per cent. Across the world this percentage is 6.8. So we have been largely spared from the larger consequences of this pandemic, he said.
He also claimed that Pakistan was ahead of other South Asian countries in handling the coronavirus crisis.
Last week, Imran Khan has announced that the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown will be lifted in phases starting from Saturday, despite a surge in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths.
Also, the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) extended a ban on the domestic flights until May 13 as part of the government’s instructions to minimize travelling of people. The earlier ban ended on May 10.
The COVID-19 respiratory illness caused by this mysterious contagion has so far infected more than 4.1 million people in 202 countries and territories of the world and over 285,000 of them have died and counting.
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