PM Imran Khan to chair NCC meeting on Monday

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has summoned a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) to decide whether to further ease or tighten the Covid-19 lockdown in view of a spike in infections and fatalities, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The meeting will not take place on June 1 (Monday) instead of Sunday. PM Khan will chair a meeting.

All chief ministers, federal ministers and relevant authorities will attend the meeting that will take stock of the ongoing coronavirus crisis and will work out a future strategy in view of a sudden increase in infections and fatalities in the country.

On May 7, Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced lifting of the countrywide lockdown in phases from May 9 by allowing all construction-related industries and shopping centres to reopen for five days a week.

The decision was announced after a meeting of the National Coordination Committee.

The nationwide tally of fatalities and cases has jumped 1,395 and 66,000 respectively as 2,429 more people detected with COVID-19 during the past 24 hours.

According to the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 26,113 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 24,104 in Punjab, 9,067 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4,087 in Balochistan, 2,192 in Islamabad, 660 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 234 in Azad Kashmir.

Furthermore, 445 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in KP, 439 in Punjab, 427 in Sindh, 46 in Balochistan, 23 in Islamabad and 9 in GB.

24,131 people have been recovered from the virus so far while 40,931 are still under treatment. Pakistan has so far conducted 532,037 coronavirus tests and 12,020 in last 24 hours.