ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported a daily coronavirus case count over 1,500 for the third consecutive day on Friday, as the country continues to record a small, but definitive uptick in the virus cases. According to National Command and Operation Center’s (NCOC) daily data, 1,737 new coronavirus cases were detected in the last 24 hours after 47,528 tests were taken. The country last reported 830 daily cases on July 6. The number of active cases in the country has also gone up to 35,573. The positivity rate has also been steadily rising, with a reading of 3.65 percent on Friday morning. According to the NCOC, another 25 people died from coronavirus in Pakistan. This brought the total number of people killed by the deadly in the country to 22,520. Since the pandemic began, there have been 969,476 cases of the virus, with 911,383 people recovering so far. Sindh has 16,102 active cases, Punjab 17,196, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 9,547, Islamabad Capital Territory 1,978, Balochistan 1,397, Gilgit-Baltistan 475, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir 833, according to a province-by-province breakdown. In the event of a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Pakistan, Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar has dismissed the possibility of a complete lockdown. The minister, speaking at the inauguration of the newly appointed members of the National Youth Council (NYC), predicted that the virus’s fourth wave would begin in July. In the event that cases of the virus resurface, Umar said Pakistan will impose smart lockdowns across the country, as it has in the past, to combat the virus. He went on to say that the strategy had previously been successful in halting the virus’s spread. Prime Minister Imran Khan had urged people to follow the government’s COVID-19 standard operating procedures on Eidul Adha to keep the virus at bay a day earlier.