Daily Times

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Asad Umar on Thursday said that number of new cases of coronavirus in the country have declined by 38.74 percent during the first 15 days of the current month as compared to same period of the last month.

In his tweets, the minister stated that from June 1 to 15, average tests conducted stood at 23,403, and from July 1 to 15 the average number of tests remained 22,969, whereas the average number of Covid-19 cases from June 1 to June 15 was 5,056 daily and during the same period of current month of July, the average has declined to 3,097 cases.

Asad Umar, who is also head of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), rejected the perception that the decline in cases is due to reduction in number of daily tests. “Some (people are) saying, cases are down only due to testing reduction. If positivity ratio was same as in mid June that is over 22 percent, the 24,262 tests done on Wednesday would have resulted in 5,500 cases, while the actual number was 2,145,” he said.

Umar said the reduction in cases is due to better and positive attitude of the people and effective administrative measures. He also warned that the pandemic can spread only by irresponsible behaviour of the people who do not follow precautionary measures issued by the government to contain spread of the pandemic.

On Thursday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that 1,155 new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported during the past 24 hours, taking the total number of infections in the province to 110,068. In a statement, he said that 34 more people succumbed to Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll from the disease to 1,922.

Punjab reported 494 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the provincial total to 88,539, according to the government’s Covid-19 portal. It has also reported eight additional deaths from the virus, taking the total number of fatalities to 2,051. More than 64,000 people in the province have recovered so far.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir has overtaken Gilgit Baltistan’s Covid-19 tally after it reported a record 83 new cases in 24 hours, taking its total to 1,771. The GB has reported 42 new cases, taking its tally to 1,750. Islamabad has recorded 87 fresh cases and one additional death, taking its total to 14,402, according to the portal. The database shows that 5,927 more people have recovered from Covid-19 in Pakistan, taking the total to 178,737.