Pakistan's corona confirmed cases surge past 12,700 with 269 deaths

ISLAMABAD: The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Pakistan has jumped to 12,723 after the emergence of new infections with 269 deaths reported so far, according to National Command and Operation Center’s statistics.

Of the total confirmed cases, Punjab has reported 5,378 cases, followed by Sindh where the tally of such cases stands at 4,232. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 1,793 cases, Balochistan 722, Islamabad 235, Gilgit Baltistan 308, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir 55.

The death toll has risen to 269, including 15 fatalities reported across the country over the past 24 hours.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 93 deaths, Punjab 81, Sindh 78, Balochistan 11 with three causalities each in Islamabad and Gilgit Baltistan.

According to the official statistics, a total of 6,218 tests were conducted over the past 24 hours, of which 783 turned out to be positive.

Global deaths linked to the coronavirus have passed 200,000, while confirmed cases of the virus are expected to hit 3 million in coming days, according to a Reuters tally.

More than half of the fatalities have been reported by the United States, Spain and Italy.

The first death linked to the disease was reported on Jan. 10 in Wuhan, China. It took 91 days for the death toll to pass 100,000 and a further 16 days to reach 200,000, according to the Reuters tally of official reports from governments.

By comparison, there are an estimated 400,000 deaths annually from malaria, one of the world’s most deadly infectious diseases.