ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s coronavirus cases have spiked to 602,536, with authorities reporting some of the biggest daily increases in new infections in recent weeks, data released on Saturday showed.
According to the health ministry, 2,338 people had tested positive for COVID-19 with 46 deaths reported in the past 24 hours, taking the total fatality count to 13,476 since February last year.
The spike in numbers has stoked fears of a third wave of the epidemic gathering momentum, with Planning Minister Asad Umar saying earlier this week that there was “no doubt” it was driven by the spread of the UK-variant of the virus in the country.
“Absolutely. There is no doubt in this that the third wave has started and the phenomena that is driving this is the spread of the UK strain,” Umar said in an interview to a local television channel, adding that the Pakistani districts that saw a recent spike in positivity rates were those were a large number of people lived in the UK.
Pakistan let its guard down late last month by reopening all sectors and easing commercial activities’ time limits. It also allowed restaurants to resume indoor dining from March 15 and restarted regular, five-day classes at schools from March 1.
However, after a surge in cases this week, the government reversed its decision on Wednesday.
Authorities in Punjab have also announced a two-week spring break in some areas of the populous province and in the capital city of Islamabad to curb the spread of the disease in educational institutes.
