Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Sunday shared the data showing that number of COVID-19 patients on ventilators have gone up over the last 15 days during the second wave of the global pandemic.

He tweeted that Peshawar and Multan witnessed a 200 per cent increase in COVID-19 patients on ventilators Karachi 148pc, Lahore 114pc, and Islamabad 65pc.

Asad said 70 per cent of ventilators earmarked for Covid-19 patients in Multan and Islamabad are in use.

Without naming opposition parties, who are preparing for a rally in Peshawar today (Sunday), he said: “For political leaders to send a message that corona is not a threat is threatening lives.”

The opposition-led Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has come in for a lot of flak from the government for holding public meetings despite a spike in coronavirus cases since the second wave of the infection started lately.

Pakistan is presently experiencing the second wave of the virus. In the last 24 hours, 59 people across the country died from the deadly virus. Over 2,600 new cases were reported across the country.