Pakistan's coronavirus cases rise to 7,993; death toll at 159

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Pakistan has reported 514 new cases of the COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases in the country to 7,993 with 159 deaths, according to official data released on Sunday. The Ministry of National Health Services said the new cases were reported mostly from Punjab and Sindh provinces and included 16 deaths in the last 24 hours.

"Punjab reported 3,649 patients, Sindh 2,355, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 1,137, Balochistan 376, Gilgit-Baltistan 257, Islamabad 171 and Pakistan occupied Kashmir 48 patients," the data, which is on the ministry's website, said.

As of now, Pakistan has conducted 98,522 tests, including 7,847 during the last 24 hours.

So far 1,868 patients have recovered, the ministry said.

National Disaster Management Authority chief Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal said they would distribute 100,000 testing kits in all the provinces by Monday to further increase testing ratio.

Afzal said 50 laboratories were working across the country and conducing over 6,000 tests regularly.

To boost the testing facilities in the country, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has allowed 333 more pharmaceutical companies to manufacture sanitisers, according to an official statement.

Meanwhile, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said that the railways would set up a special quarantine train comprising of 30 coaches in Balochistan.

According to authorities, Pakistan would also allow some foreign airlines to bring back about 40,000 Pakistani nationals stranded abroad.

“Those stranded in the US should go to Doha by Qatar Airways and Pakistan government was making special arrangements to fly them home,” Zulfi Bukhari, country’s advisor on Overseas Pakistanis, said.

Globally, 160,721 people have died and over 2.3 million people have been infected by the coronavirus, according to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University. 

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