Coronavirus has a chance of spread again in Pakistan: Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD (92 News) - Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Tuesday said that coronavirus (COVID-19) has a chance of spreading again if precautions are not taken. While briefing media after the meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the minister said that people who think that Pakistan has defeated the COVID-19 are mistaken, the virus is still here and it has a chance of spreading again if precautions are not taken. “The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan decreasing, but still we are not in a position to declare the country of COVID-19 free.” Warning the people of another spike of the coronavirus cases, the minister urged the nation to adopt SOPs to contain virus spread and added that NCOC teams are visiting provinces to create more awareness about the deadly virus. Asad Umar said that the world is appreciating the smart lockdown policy of Prime Minister Imran Khan, which remained successful in containing the spread of Corona. He mentioned that 20 districts in the country were still under a smart lockdown, proving that the spread of the disease has been controlled but it hasn’t been eradicated. On the other hand, there is a significant improvement in the number of recoveries from coronavirus in Pakistan with the tally reaching 261,246 and only 17,833 cases are active across the country. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), a total of 531 new coronavirus cases and fifteen associated deaths were reported across the country over the last 24 hours, taking the national tally of infections to 285,191 and fatalities to 6,112. As many as 18,227 samples were tested for COVID-19 during the previous 24 hours, out of which 531 turned out to be positive. Of the total Covid-19 patients, 261,246 have recuperated from the disease so far as the number of active cases stands at 17,883. Out of 1,859 ventilators earmarked for critically-ill patients, only 143 are in use.