23 more die, 936 test positive for coronavirus in past 24 hours

ISLAMABAD: As many as 936 new coronavirus cases and 23 deaths were reported in the country over the past 24 hours, taking the national tally of cases to 275,225 and fatalities to 5,865.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre, 936 new cases were detected after 19,610 tests were conducted in the previous 24 hours.

26,924 COVID-19 patients are undergoing treatment while 242,436 patients have recuperated from the disease. 1,909,846 tests have been conducted across the country so far.

Sindh remains the worst-hit province by the pandemic in terms of cases followed by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad.

118,824 cases have been detected in Sindh so far, 92,279  in Punjab, 33,510 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11,624  in Balochistan, 14, 938 in Islamabad, 2,040 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 2,010 in Gilgit Baltistan.

Global virus deaths pass 650,000

Officials around the world reintroduced a raft of restrictions Monday- to try to tamp down coronavirus hotspots as the official global death toll passed 650,000.

European countries trying to repair the economic damage caused by the earlier lockdowns struggled to balance keeping the lifeline of tourism open while guarding against new flare-ups of infection.

The US, the worst-hit nation in the world, had added another 57,000 cases of infection and its recorded death toll stood at 147,588, said Johns Hopkins University.

But as the grim figures kept rolling in, the World Health Organization argued against a wholesale closing of borders.

This was “not necessarily a sustainable strategy for the world’s economy, for the world’s poor, or for anybody else,” said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan.

A “global one-size-fits-all policy” was impossible because outbreaks were developing differently in different countries, he added.