Pakistan's COVID-19 cases cross 800,000 mark

As COVID-19 cases are rapidly surging in Pakistan, the country's total cases of COVID-19 infection crossed 800,000 mark on Monday.

Citing National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, Geo News reported that at least 70 more people have succumbed to coronavirus in Pakistan, taking the nationwide COVID-19 death toll to 17,187, while over 4,800 new infections have been reported taking the tally to 800,452.

According to NCOC data, since the COVID-19 outbreak began, Sindh has reported 290,788 cases, while Punjab recorded 285,542, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (114,077), Balochistan (21,743), Islamabad (72,613), Gilgit-Baltistan (5,258), and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (16,591).

Pakistan's COVID-19 positivity ratio jumped to over 10 per cent on Sunday, a day after the country reported the highest number of deaths due to coronavirus.

Amid the sudden rise in coronavirus cases, the federal government has warned they will be forced to impose a complete lockdown in the country if the current positivity rate of COVID-19 cases continues in the coming week.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Pakistan's Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that there would be serious consequences for the health care system of the country if the present 11 per cent ratio of detection of coronavirus cases persisted just for one or one-and-half-week more, Gulf News reported.

"Our government has been doing its best since last one year to avoid the situation of complete lockdown in the country as such a decision creates serious repercussions for our daily wage earners and traders," Chaudhry said.

( With inputs from ANI )