Pakistan reports nearly 4000 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours

Pakistan's coronavirus tally jumped to 623,135 on Saturday after the country reported more than 3000 cases for the third consecutive day during the past 24 hours.

On Friday, the national positivity ratio hit 8%, the first since last year. During the past 24 hours, 40,946 people were tested for the novel virus, taking the total number of tests conducted so far to 9,732,033. Out of the new tests, 3,876 came out positive.

So far, there are 29,576 active COVID-19 cases. In 24 hours, the novel virus claimed 42 more lives. So far, 13,799 people have lost their lives due to coronavirus. Sindh reported 293 new cases, Punjab 2,033, Balochistan 16 and KP reported 681 new COVID-19 cases.

Whereas, Islamabad reported 747 cases, Azad Jammu and Kashmir reported 106 and Gilgit-Baltistan reported no new infections. The country's recoveries reached 579,760 after 1,446 people recovered from the virus.

Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar has warned that the government will impose stronger restrictions if the people fail to comply with the coronavirus SOPs. "If sop compliance does not improve, we will be forced to place stronger restrictions on activities. Please be very very careful. The new strain spreads faster and is more deadly," Umar tweeted.