Islamabad
Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui confirmed on Sunday that five coronavirus cases emerged in the office within the past week.
The spokesperson said all those who tested positive for Covid-19 have been quarantined and relevant standard operating procedures (SOPs) have been implemented to contain the spread of the virus. Among the five cases were two officers and three staff members, she added.
Pakistan’s tally of coronavirus cases surpassed China as it crossed the 86,000 mark on June 4 as the authorities eased lockdown restrictions across the country.
As of today, the nationwide tally of Covid-19 patients stands at 98,943 with 37,090 cases in Punjab, 36,364 in Sindh, 13,001 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 6,221 in Balochistan, 927 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 4,979 in Islamabad and 361 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the government’s official portal, Pakistan reported 4,960 cases in the last 24 hours.
China has reported a total of 82,933 cases and 4,638 deaths since the start of the outbreak last December, according to the data of Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, health authorities in Pakistan believe the already stretched health system is unable to handle the lurking influx of Covid-19 patients.
In the country’s two most populous cities of Karachi and Lahore, hospitals are already struggling because of a sharp increase in Covid-19 patients in recent weeks.–INP
