Pakistan reports 545 new coronavirus cases, six deaths
22 educational facilities shut over Covid-19 infections, violation of SOPs
September 17, 2020 11:55 AM
Pakistan reported 545 new coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours (Wednesday) amid the fears that the infection rate could again increase as educational institutions reopened across the country this week.
That’s why the National Command and Operation Centre said 22 educational facilities were shut in the country in the past two days after reporting new cases and not following the SOPs defined by the government.
Earlier on Tuesday, another 665 people tested positive for the virus. The virus was found in only 213 people on August 30 – the lowest number officially reported on any day in Pakistan – but the trend of a decrease in the daily figures has reversed since then.
Earlier on June 14, the daily count had reached its maximum since the pandemic outbreak in the country when 6,825 people were diagnosed with the deadly virus.
The latest official figures released on Thursday morning shows the overall number of the coronavirus cases has now reached 303,634.
Meanwhile, another six people died of the virus during the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 6,399.
As far as the region-wise distribution of the cases in concerned, Sindh continues to be the most affected province with the virus found in 132,818 people.
Relevant figures for other provinces/ regions are: Punjab 98,041, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 37,185, Islamabad 15,005, Balochistan 13,798, Gilgit-Baltistan 3,336 and Azad Kashmir 2,451.
On the other hand, 593 coronavirus patients are currently in a critical condition and being treated in the intensive care units of different hospitals. Meanwhile, 102 of them have been placed on ventilators.
As a whole, 998 patients, including the ones in the intensive care units, are receiving treatment at different hospitals.
However, there 6,006 active cases in the country as of Thursday morning with 291,169 people fully recovering from the infection.
In this scenario, the testing process in also continuing across the country to identify and isolate those who have contracted the virus. Hence, 31,808 tests were administered during the past 24 hours, raising the overall count to 3,056,795.