KARACHI: A renowned ENT specialist in Karachi died of coronavirus on Saturday. Dr Usman was the first doctor at Jinnah Hospital who died because of the virus.

ENT surgeon Prof Dr Usman has been down with the Covid-19 for the last many days. He was under treatment at Aga Khan Hospital.

Earlier, Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar has said there are “unmistakable signs of the rise of corona” in the country and the government may have to take “restrictive actions” to curb the spread, which will have negative effects on the livelihoods of the people. In a series of tweets, Asad Umar said the national positivity of Covid-19 cases was 2.37% on Wednesday, which is the highest in more than 50 days.

The minister, who also oversees Pakistan’s response to the pandemic, said 11 virus deaths on average have been reported during the first four days of this week, the highest since August 10. These are the “unmistakable signs of the rise of corona” in Pakistan, he said.