Pakistan recorded 5,611 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, pushing the number of infections to 795,627, while the death toll due to coronavirus has crossed 17,000 mark, according to the official data.
The Ministry of National Health Services said 118 more people have succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 17,117.
The pandemic is not receding and the officials have introduced tough restrictions like closure of markets after 6 pm to bring it under control.
Information minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Saturday that the government would wait for a week and if the situation did not improve, it would impose a complete lockdown.
“He (Prime Minister Imran Khan) always wants such a system that the economy keeps moving so at least the poor segments of society don’t come under pressure. But now we would wait for another week and if the situation doesn’t improve, definitely we would have to think about complete lockdown,” he said.
Prime Minister Khan on Friday urged the people of Pakistan to strictly follow the Covid-19 guidelines, warning that another nationwide lockdown will be imposed if the spiralling coronavirus crisis continues to worsen.
Khan, who was himself affected by the disease last month, warned that major cities would be closed down if the situation continued to deteriorate.
“If we (as a nation) don’t take precautionary measures, we will have to impose a lockdown which will also affect our economy at a time when it is on the rise,” he said and urged the people to follow the SoPs as they did during Ramzan last year.
Khan said he had asked the Pakistan Army to assist police and law enforcement agencies in enforcing SOPs.
