Pakistan faced revenue loss of Rs119 billion in April due to coronavirus crisis: Umar

• Planning minister says 10.8 million people could be rendered jobless while 20 to 70 million could go below poverty line due to the impact of the lockdown.
• Umar says for the last six days, at least 24 people died of coronavirus on a daily basis.
• The government will decide its post-May 9 strategy after a meeting of the National Coordination Committee, says Asad Umar.

(Karachi) Planning Minister Asad Umar has said that Pakistan's revenue loss was estimated at Rs119 billion in April due to lockdown and restrictions in wake of coronavirus crisis.

Addressing a press briefing on coronavirus situation, he said that with the passage of time the death toll related to the disease increased in the country.

He said that 10.8 million people could be rendered jobless while 20 to 70 million could go below poverty line due to the impact of the lockdown.

Umar said one million small businesses could be affected by the lockdown.

He added that for the last six days, at least 24 people died of coronavirus on a daily basis. He mentioned that among one million population, two died of the virus.

He said if the situation continues, 720 people could die of the virus in one month.

The planning minister said that the government will take decisions keeping in view the current situation. "Prime Minister Imran Khan will be briefed on the current Covid-19 situation in the next few days. The government will then decide its post-May 9 strategy after a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC)," he remarked.

He said we have significantly enhanced the capacity of our healthcare system. We currently have 1,400 ventilators for Coronavirus patients and 900 more will be added in two months. He said at present there are 35 Coronavirus patients on ventilators.

He said the country has now the capacity to develop medical equipment and soon the domestic production of ventilators will start.

The minister said the country has fifty five functional labs and we have the capacity to carry out over 14000 corona tests on daily basis.

Asad said the testing, tracking and quarantine system has been made functional and one saw its manifestation recently in two sectors of the federal capital.