COAS Qamar Javed Bajwa calls on PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Imran Khan, ARY NEWS reported.

The prime minister chaired a high-level meeting after the army chief called on him.

The meeting was attended by Director General (DG) Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar and Adviser to PM on Accountability Shahzad Akbar.

The meeting discussed the overall situation of national security along with also discussing coronavirus situation.

It is pertinent to mention here that the death toll from coronavirus in the country crossed the 1000 mark on Wednesday after Punjab and Sindh reported 17 fatalities each, raising concerns as the country eased its lockdown measures.

As many as 1,017 new cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Sindh over the past 24 hours, rising the tally of infections to 18, 964 across the province.

Seventeen more people died from the disease in the previous 24 hours, taking the number of fatalities to 316 in the province.

The Sindh CM said 127 patients are in critical condition, of them 32 are on ventilators.

Meanwhile, 709 new coronavirus cases have emerged in Punjab, taking the provincial tally to 16,685, according to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department.

17 more deaths were reported, pushing the total number of provincial fatalities to 290.

A spokesperson of the Punjab health department said that of the fresh cases, 368 tested positive in Lahore.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 16,685 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Punjab, 18,964 in Sindh, 6,554 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2,885 in Balochistan, 1,138 in Islamabad, 556 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 133 in Azad Kashmir.