Unmistakable signs of rise of coronavirus in Pakistan: Asad

Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar Thursday said there are "unmistakable signs of the rise of corona" in the country and the government may have to take "restrictive actions" to curb the spread, which will have "negative effects" on the livelihoods of the people.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Asad Umar said the national positivity of COVID-19 cases was 2.37% yesterday, which is the highest in more than 50 days. The minister, who also oversees Pakistan's response to the pandemic, said 11 virus deaths on average have been reported during the first four days of this week, the highest since August 10. These are the "unmistakable signs of the rise of corona" in Pakistan, he said. The federal minister said that the COVID-19 positivity is "extremely high" in Muzaffarabad, "high" in Karachi and "rising" in Lahore and Islamabad.

"Time for all of us to take covid sop's seriously again. Otherwise, unfortunately we may have to take restrictive actions which have negative effects on peoples livelihoods." Punjab has recorded its highest new coronavirus cases in over two months, as per the official tally.

On Wednesday, 223 people tested positive in Punjab, while seven died, according to the daily situation report of the province. Meanwhile, 11,607 tests were conducted in a single day across Punjab. The last time Punjab recorded such a high caseload in one-day was on August 5, when 276 people tested positive.

On Thursday, the minister for planning, development and special initiatives, Asad Umar also tweeted that COVID-19 positivity rate was "extremely high" in Muzaffarabad and Karachi, while it was rising in Lahore and Islamabad.

"Time for all of us to take covid sop's seriously again. Otherwise, unfortunately we may have to take restrictive actions which have negative effects on people's livelihoods," he added.

Despite the spike in the number of cases, Punjab's test positive rate remains low. It hit its highest this month on October 10 with a rate of 1.8%, but then dropped down to 1.1% on October 13, as per daily reports by the World Health Organization.

While the positivity rate in Lahore, Punjab's capital city, was 1.5% on October 13.

ISLAMABAD