Pak to conduct over 20,000 COVID-19 tests daily by April end: Official

Pakistan is planning to conduct over 20,000 COVID-19 tests daily by the end of April as sixty per cent of the new coronavirus cases in the country are due to local transmission, a senior official said on Friday.

Addressing media on the COVID-19 situation in the country, Pakistan's Advisor on Health Dr Zafar Mirza said most of the coronavirus cases in the country was due to local transmissions.

According to the Johns Hopkins University data, the virus has infected over 671,000 people and claimed more than 33,000 lives, the highest for any country in the world.

Pakistan has so far reported a total of 7,125 cases with 137 deaths. In the last 24 hours Pakistan has reported 494 cases of coronavirus.

The local transmissions are 60 percent of total new cases, he said during the press briefing held after the daily meeting of National Command and Operation Center, which is tasked to suggest policy interventions and implement decisions of the government.

He said the Pakistan government would conduct more than 20,000 COVID-19 tests daily by the end of April.

Mirza also said an information technology-based platform would be launched on Saturday to enable overseas Pakistani healthcare professionals to help the government's coronavirus response.

He said Pakistan had more than 1 million testing kits and there was no shortage of any material related to the disease.

Average daily positive COVID-19 cases reported in last 2 days has been 509 versus average of 281 from April 10 to 15. This is due to scaling up of testing. Last 2 days average of 5,892 tests versus average of 2,918 tests April 10 to 15. Positive results last 2 days were 8.6 per cent versus 9.6 per cent from April 10 to 15, he tweeted, he said.

Prime Minister Imran Khan also urged officials on Thursday to take measures to cope with the disease during the upcoming month of Ramzan.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi launched a special app to monitor the working of Pakistan's foreign missions.