Critical COVID-19 cases witnessing 30pc rise from June 2020: Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development and Head of the National Command Operations Centre (NCOC) Asad Umar on Monday warned of rising COVID-19 cases in the country and stressed upon the need to implement SOPs, ARY NEWS reported.

He said that a rise in COVID-19 cases is being witnessed and cited examples of the neighbouring countries, India and Iran where the daily death toll has reached 1600 and 300 respectively.

“The implementation of COVID SOPs is needed more than ever,” he said.

Asad Umar said that the hospitals are increasingly overburdened and the critical cases have gone beyond 4,000 to 5,000 in the country. “The current critical cases are 30 percent more than the cases during June 2020,” he said.

He further said that the demand for oxygen supply has increased currently.

“There is minimal implementation on COVID-19 SOPs and we committing a grave mistake by not implementing the precautionary measures,” he said.

COVID-19 tally in Pakistan 

The novel coronavirus has claimed 73 more lives in Pakistan during the last 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 16,316.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) statistics on Covid-19, the country reported 73 more deaths due to the pandemic, while 5,152 new cases were reported during the said period.

The national tally of confirmed cases climbed to 761,437 as 5,152 new infections surfaced during the past 24 hours.

As many as 60,162 samples were tested, out of which 5,152 turned out to be positive with an 8.56 per cent positivity rate.

The total number of people recuperating from the disease stands at 662,845, while 4,515 patients are critically ill due to COVID and are currently under treatment at the country’s various hospitals.