Almost 100 Sindh police officers test positive for coronavirus in a week

• Almost 100 officers and personnel of the Sindh Police test positive for coronavirus over the last week.
• Sindh Police spokesperson says at least 24 cops have died of coronavirus so far.
• Spokesperson adds that the total number of police officers and personnel affected by the coronavirus has risen to 6,250.

KARACHI: Almost 100 officers and personnel of the Sindh Police have tested positive for COVID-19, the potentially deadly disease caused by the novel coronavirus, over the last week, Geo Urdu reported Sunday.

According to a spokesperson for the Sindh Police, dozens of officers have contracted the coronavirus within a week, with the tests of 94 of them coming positive over the last seven days.

The new cases have bumped up the total number of police officers and personnel affected by the coronavirus to 6,250, the Sindh Police spokesperson added, noting that 24 cops have died of COVID-19 so far.

Pakistan's worrying coronavirus situation

On Friday, Pakistan had crossed the 600,000-case mark after 2,701 new infections were reported, according to the daily data issued by the body monitoring Pakistan's coronavirus situation — the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) — with the rise signalling alarm for policymakers.

A breakdown of the data showed that of the 600,198 cases, 10,816, 19,171, 4,959, 46,963, 75,052, 182,576, and 260,661 were reported from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh, respectively.

The NCOC added that 54 new deaths were also recorded in Pakistan in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally of coronavirus-related deaths to 13,430 — of which Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and AJK reported 4,452, 5,698, 2,138, 520, 202, 103, and 317 deaths, respectively.