Pakistan, in the last 24 hours, registered a record single-day hike in COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, and the federal government is now mulling a tougher lockdown in coronavirus-hit cities.
Pakistan's total cases of infections have already crossed the 800,000-mark and the death toll from the coronavirus has reached 17,530, The Express Tribune reported.
In the last 24 hours, Pakistan reported 201 more COVID-19 deaths, the highest number in a single day since the pandemic broke out in the country last year.
According to the latest figures issued by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 5,292 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the number of positive cases to 810,231. The COVID-19 positivity rate was registered at 10.77 per cent in the same period.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has indicated that the federal government might impose a complete lockdown in coronavirus-hit cities and stressed the need for a smooth supply of food items during the lockdown.
The Cabinet meeting presided over by Khan decided that Iran would be asked to export oxygen to Pakistan for COVID-19 patients on a humtarian basis, Dawn reported.
"The prime minister has directed that food supplies should be improved if we go for complete lockdown," said information minister Fawad Chaudhry in a press conference after the weekly cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile, a cabinet member told Dawn that the government feared that it would have to impose complete lockdown if the intensity of spread of coronavirus increased by 14 per cent and above.
According to the member, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi asked Imran Khan to take measures to convince Iran to lift the ban on oxygen export to the extent of supplying it to Pakistan, adding that the government was also considering the import of oxygen from China.
( With inputs from ANI )
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