Coronavirus cases rise to 2,899 in Pakistan

The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan rose to 2,899 on Sunday as the disease continued to spread steadily across the country, officials said.

According to the Ministry of National Health Services, 45 people have died so far due to the viral infection in the country and 130 have recovered.

While Punjab recorded 1,163 cases, Sindh reported 881, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 372, Balochistan 185, Gilgit-Baltistan 206, Islamabad 78 and 14 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The ministry made slight adjustment in the data from the KP province. On Saturday, the ministry had said that there were 383 coronavirus cases in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. However, it revised the number to 372 in the latest update.

The Pakistan government has taken several measures to curtail the spread of the viral infection, but without much success, officials said.

The National Coordination Committee headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan meets every day to evolve the response to the COVID-19 treat.

The government has also set up a National Command and Operation Centre to implement the decisions made by the committee.

Khan has said that the national policy aimed at slowing down the spread of the disease and opening the economy so that people should have jobs.

The Pakistan government on Saturday informed the Supreme Court that the number of coronavirus patients in the country could reach up to 50,000 by the last week of this month.

"By April 25, the number of the coronavirus cases are feared to reach 50,000," stated the report submitted by the government on its national action plan for combating the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

According to the breakdown provided in the report, around 7,000 cases of the total are expected to be critical in nature while around 2,500 could be a cause of concern.

The government estimates that a further 41,000 cases could be of a mild nature, the Geo News had reported.

The report noted that confirmed cases are expected to be lower than that of countries in Europe, and assured that the government is trying to maximize its testing capacity.