Provincial Minister of Sindh for Energy, Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh Saturday tested positive for the coronavirus.

Imtiaz Sheikh said he underwent coronavirus test after feeling sour throat and fever yesterday that returned positive.

The Sindh Energy minister said he has isolated himself at home and has also appealed to friends and well-wishers to pray for his early recovery.

The coronavirus cases in Pakistan have once again been witnessing a spike in infection rate in recent days.

Pakistan reported 645 new coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours (Friday), raising the overall total to 305,031. It is this increase in coronavirus cases which made the Sindh government on Friday to delay the reopening of schools for class VI to VIII by at least one week.

The students of these classes were supposed to resume their studies from September 21. But Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani said it won’t be possible because of the pandemic and the decision would later be taken whether to allow the children to schools from September 28.

However, the federal government isn’t happy with the move, saying the province should have consulted before opting for such a move.

Meanwhile, the latest decision by the Sindh government means that the reopening of schools for primary sections – nursery to class V – may also be affected as these students were supposed to join their classes from September 28.

According to the data released by National Command and Operation Centre on Saturday morning, another seven people lost their lives due to the coronavirus infection on Friday which means the death toll in the country has now reached 6,415.

The same period saw another 361 people fully recovering from the infection, raising the overall number of recoveries to 292,044. It means there are 6,572 active cases currently in the country with 562 of them in a critical condition.

Moreover, the testing process in the country has also been ramped up with a special focus on the teaching and non-teaching staff at educational institutions. Hence, the number of tests conducted since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak jumped to 3,126,380 after 35,720 people were tested for detecting the deadly virus.

As far as the region-wise distribution of the cases is concerned, Sindh continues to be the most affected province with the virus found in 133,362 people.

Relevant figures for other provinces/ regions are: Punjab 98,272, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 37,270, Islamabad 16,086, Balochistan 14,138, Gilgit-Baltistan 3,412 and Azad Kashmir 2,491.