APRIL 5, 2020
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. – JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday warned the people of his country that they are not immune to the threat posed by the coronavirus. He, however, exuded confidence that Pakistan would emerge stronger from the challenge.
“Nobody should have the false notion that they will be safe from this (coronavirus)…Look at New York where most of the rich people live,” he said on Saturday.
Khan’s remarks came as he visited Lahore to oversee the measures taken by the Punjab government as the number of coronavirus patients in the largest province of the country crossed 1,000.
Khan visited a 1,000-bed makeshift hospital set up by the provincial government at a short notice to accommodate the coronavirus patients.
As of Saturday, Pakistan has recorded 2,818 cases of Covid-19. There have been 41 deaths due to the disease in the country, though with only limited testing available, observers worry the number is far higher.
Punjab – the hotspot of the viral infection in Pakistan – reported a total of 1,072 cases, followed by Sindh at 839, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 383, Balochistan 175, Gilgit-Baltistan 193, Islamabad 75 and 11 cases in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Khan earlier in the day again rejected the possibility of a total lockdown.
The Pakistan government on Saturday informed the Supreme Court that the number of coronavirus patients in the country could reach up to 50,000 by the last week of this month.
According to the breakdown provided in the report and widely reported in the media, around 7,000 cases of the total are expected to be critical in nature while around 2,500 could be a cause of concern. The government estimates that a further 41,000 cases could be of a mild nature.
The report noted that confirmed cases are expected to be lower than that of countries in Europe, and assured that the government is trying to maximize its testing capacity.
Courtesy/Source: Hindustan Times
