Islamabad, May 18 : Pakistan on Monday reported 1,974 fresh cases of coronavirus, taking the total infections in the country to over 42,000 with 903 deaths, the health ministry said.
Out of total 42,125 patients, 16,377 cases have been detected in Sindh, 15,346 in Punjab, 6,061 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 2,692 in Balochistan, 997 in Islamabad, 540 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 112 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
“The nationwide tally of coronavirus cases on Monday soared to 42,125 with 1,974 new cases reported during the last 24-hours,” the health ministry said.
A total of 11,922 patients have so far recovered from the virus while the death toll stands at 903 with 30 new deaths reported.
So far 387,335 tests had been conducted, including 13,925 in the last 24-hours.
Planning Minister Asad Umar said that a capacity of 30,000 tests per day would be sufficient for Pakistan to control the spread of the deadly virus.
“Currently we are in a position to hold over 25,000 tests per day and with every passing day our capacity to conduct tests is increasing. We hope that by the end of the month or at the start of next month we will be able to hold 30,000 tests per day, he was quoted as saying to Dawn newspaper.
As the transport services has been allowed, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed once again demanded that railway should also be allowed to resume its operations.
He said an amount of Rs 240 million would be refunded to passengers from Wednesday if the decision of resumption of train service was not made by Tuesday.
Thousands of people have made advance bookings to travel home ahead of Eid on May 25.
Pakistan has already made partially operational the domestic air services as the nation continues to lift its nation-wide lockdown.
(PTI)
