There is a visible decrease in the deaths caused by coronavirus as only 40 people died of the virus during the past 24 hours (Wednesday), raising the death toll in Pakistan to 5,426.

On the other hand, the coronavirus was found in another 2,145 people during the same period which means the number of cases has now reached 257,537, shows the latest data released by National Command and Operation Centre on Thursday morning.

In another development, Azad Kashmir surpassed Gilgit-Baltistan in terms of the officially reported coronavirus cases for the first time since the pandemic outbreak.

There are 73,751 active cases in the country as 178,737 people have fully recovered from the infection. Out of these active cases, 1,942 patients are in critical condition and being treated in the intensive care units of different hospitals.

Meanwhile, the number of tests conducted since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak has increased to 1,652,183 after 24,262 people were tested on Wednesday.

As far as deaths are concerned, Punjab is still far ahead of other provinces and regions with 2,051 people dying so far. It is followed by Sindh 1,888, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1,120, Islamabad 156, Balochistan 127, Azad Kashmir 46 and Gilgit-Baltistan 38.

In the term of infections, Sindh tops the list with 108,913 cases. The figures for the other provinces/ administrative units are: Punjab 88,539, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 31,217, Islamabad 14,402, Balochistan 11,322, Azad Kashmir 1,771 and Gilgit-Baltistan 1,750.