140% increase in coronavirus mortality rate in Pakistan: Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar on Tuesday said that the COVID-19 mortality rate in Pakistan has increased by 140% in the last week and warned the public against ignoring the safety protocols.

Asad Umar, who also oversees Pakistan’s COVID-19 response, said, “We are collectively committing a blunder by recklessly ignoring all SOPs and the results have started to show”.

Read more: Govt bars public gatherings in cities with 6-9% positivity ratio

The warning from the federal minister came a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan sounded alarm bells saying he feared a "second coronavirus spike" in cities such as Faisalabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi, and Gujranwala, as the winter season approaches.

Asad Umar took to Twitter to highlight the deteriorating situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and said if we do not change our current path we will lose both lives and livelihoods.

“Last week daily covid mortality was 12. This is a 140% increase vs few weeks back. We are collectively committing a blunder by recklessly ignoring all sop's & the results have started to show. If we do not change our current path we will lose both lives and livelihoods,” he tweeted.

Read more: Pakistan Medical Association warns of second wave of coronavirus

Govt hints at re-imposing lockdown

Last week, the minister had hinted that the government may have to reimpose lockdown in the country to curb the virus spread, which will have “negative effects” on the livelihoods of the people.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Asad Umar had said the national positivity of COVID-19 cases was 2.37% yesterday, which is the highest in more than 50 days.

These are the "unmistakable signs of the rise of corona" in Pakistan, he had noted.

The federal minister had said that the COVID-19 positivity was “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.”