Pakistan reports over 3,700 new infections over past 24 hours

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported 3,785 new infections on Sunday, causing the national tally to rise to 858,026 as the country grapples with the third wave of the coronavirus. 

As per the official data by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 40,736 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours out of which 3,785 tests returned positive.

Pakistan reported 118 deaths from the virus during the past 24 hours, taking the countrywide death toll to 18,915.

As far as the data breakdown of the provinces is concerned, Sindh has reported 291,668 cases, Punjab 317,972, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 123,842, Islamabad 77,974, Balochistan 23,324, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 17,866, and Gilgit Baltistan 5,380.

About 757, 281 people have recovered across Pakistan from coronavirus.

Danger higher than ever

A day earlier, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar had called for unity in response to the third wave of coronavirus, warning that the "danger is higher than ever".

Read more: Coronavirus in Pakistan: ‘Danger is higher than ever,’ warns Asad Umar

On Twitter, the federal minister said that the need for caution is clear. "Need the country to unite in response and achieve once again what we achieved in the first wave, for which we received global praise. Inshallah, we will do it again, together," he said in a message on Twitter.

The federal minister, who is also chief of the country’s COVID-19 body, presented the example of a small country like Nepal which saw an exponential rise in cases going up above 7,000 daily.

"Deaths also rose sharply. You can see the entire region is exploding with cases and deaths, in the latest covid wave. We have alhamdulillah been spared the worst by timely decisions." Umar noted.