Jump in Pakistan’s Tally as It Struggles to Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic

1. Pakistan reports its 3rd coronavirus death in Karachi, Sindh
2. The latest victim was a 77-year-old cancer survivor with other health conditions
3. Pakistan reported its first two coronavirus deaths on March 18, both in KP
4. Number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan has risen to 464
5. Sindh has been affected the worst with 238 confirmed cases so far
6. Punjab has reported 96, Baluchistan 81, KP 23, AJK/GB 24, and Islamabad 2 cases

Pakistan’s tally of confirmed coronavirus cases has also jumped to 464 with new cases coming in by the hour from all provinces.

Both the center and provinces continue to ramp up their efforts to restrict the virus spread through strict measures that range from curtailing social and commercial activities to suspending bus and train services and imposing partial city lockdowns.

A spike in local transmission was seen with Sindh alone reporting at least 40 verified cases of domestic spread. Among other measures, the Sindh government announced that the Karachi Expo Center was to be converted to a ten-thousand-bed makeshift hospital dedicated to coronavirus emergency.

The army announced that it was extending all-out support to the central and provincial governments to fight the pandemic and that its scientists were producing masks, sanitizers, and other protective gear to fill the supply gap created by panic buying and hoarding.

In a major development, the government of Pakistan announced the launch of an online portal to relay official information on the novel coronavirus and its spread. The portal features a live, interactive dashboard on the latest COVID-19 stats and can be accessed at covid.gov.pk.

The portal, however, was found to be showing fewer numbers than the reported ones but contains comprehensive information on COVID-19 and prevention guides.

In other developments, the PCB announced that the COVID-19 tests of all players, support staff, match officials, broadcasters and team owners were negative. The tests were conducted as part of the PCB’s ‘duty of care’, following a suspected case. The Indian Prime Minister Modi ordered a one-day nationwide curfew on Sunday to test the country’s ability to isolate its nearly 1.4 billion citizens.

In other news, China reported zero local transmissions in Wuhan or the surrounding Hubei province for the first time since the outbreak began.

Here are the latest updates.

Punjab Reports 16 New Coronavirus Cases

Punjab has reported 16 new COVID-19 cases which take its provincial tally to 96. The new numbers came in a notification from Qaiser Asif, the spokesperson for Punjab’s health department.

According to Asif, 71 of Punjab’s cases have been reported from Zaireen who travelled to the province from Taftan, 15 from Lahore, 2 from Multan, 3 from Muzaffargarh, 1 from Rawalpindi, 3 from Gujrat and 1 from Jehlum.

Distribute Zakat Now and Don’t Wait for Ramzan: CII

 The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has urged people to distribute zakat and sadqa as soon as possible to minimize the adverse effects of the coronavirus epidemic.

The pandemic continues to shake the world’s biggest economies to its core and people in developing countries like Pakistan remain the worst hit.

Especially the poor and those on daily wages are facing a severe financial crisis which people’s support in the form of zakat and sadqa can help to ease.