Pakistan to witness COVID-19 peak during July-August: PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said that Pakistan could avoid devastating effect of COVID-19 that developed countries faced, if public adopts precautionary measures, ARY NEWS reported.

“If precautionary measures are not adopted then there is a testing time ahead for the nation,” warned the prime minister while speaking on COVID-19 situation in the country.

He said that the lockdown would not eliminate chances of COVID-19 pandemic instead it only helps in containing its widespread outbreak. “It spreads rapidly in areas where people gather in large numbers,” the premier said.

Imran Khan said that lockdown created issues for labour and poor segments of the society as they faced  hunger due to a break on economic activity.

“We disbursed large sums of money among needy people in record time period,” he said adding that even the developed countries acknowledged that lockdown was not a permanent solution to contain COVID-19 pandemic.

Imran Khan said that even the United States, where 100,000 people have died of COVID-19, eased restrictions on movement.

He said that the federal government was trying to contain a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases so that they could improve their health system in the meantime to deal with the pandemic.

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“If the cases witnesses a steep surge, it could overburden the country’s health system,” he said while forecasting that the country would witness a peak in COVID-19 cases by July end and August.

It is pertinent to mention here that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Pakistan now has passed 100,000 mark and currently stands at 103,671 after detection of 4,728 new infections in last 24 hours.

According to the latest data released by the National Command and Operation Center, death toll from COVID-19 is currently recorded at 2,067 with 65 more virus-related deaths reported in the past 24 hours

According to NCOC, 38,108 cases have been detected in Sindh, 38,903 in Punjab, 13,487 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 6,516 in Balochistan, 5,329 in Islamabad, 396 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 932 in Gilgit Baltistan.