Mid-May Pakistan will see more COVID-19 cases: Imran Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said that Pakistan will see an increased number of cases of COVID-19 during mid-May.

Addressing media persons, Khan said: "The coronavirus cases are expected to increase from May 15 to May 20. The hospitals as we were predicting earlier would have been under pressure April 15 onwards. However, that has moved forward by a month to May 15."

He also said that a bigger crisis of coronavirus was averted due to the lockdown that the government initiated mid-March.

He said: "50,000 cases were expected by April 25, but we were saved from the disaster as we implemented lockdown in March when there were only fewer cases in the country."

Prime Minister Khan also stressed that unemployment and hardships of daily wage labourers remain a challenge for his government.

"The biggest problem is that labour workforce is not registered in our country," he said.

"The government opened the construction industry to protect people from unemployment and hunger," he said.

Pakistan on Saturday decided to let the Ramazan prayers go on in mosques despite coronavirus cases in the country crossing the 7,500-mark.

Pakistan President Arif Alvi said on Saturday that the mosques in the country would remain open during Ramzan but the people would have to follow strict guidelines that the government would release in regard to prayers in mosques, The Express Tribune reported.

Alvi chaired a meeting of top religious scholars in the country on Saturday to arrive at the decision.

He said: "The entire nation is looking towards the government and the religious scholars to come up with a consensus policy on the matter."

As of Saturday, Pakistan has reported 7,516 cases of coronavirus. The toll due to COVID-19 stands at 143.

( With inputs from ANI )