Pakistani lawmaker baffles all; claims half of UK's population has Covid & brazens it out

A lawmaker of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's PTI party has made yet ar bizarre claim, stating that half of United Kingdom's population is infected with Coronavirus. In a video shared by Pakistani journalist Naila Inayat, lawmaker during a news programme said that out of UK's 6.5 crore population, more than half are infected and over 33,000 are dead. 

'This is breaking news even for UK'

After listening to this, panellists and anchor were visibly baffled by her claim and anchor asked. "Were nearly three crore people infected?" after which lawmaker tried to justify claim by saying that Britain opted to go for "herd immunity" and n y imposed a lockdown but dam was already done.

Britain's official coronavirus death toll is w over 40,000 with almost 10,000 dead in care homes in England and Wales alone, according to a statistical update released on Tuesday. 

Some 40,902 deaths from COVID-19 were registered by May 8, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS), meaning true toll will be even higher when deaths registered over last 10 days are taken into account. ONS figures include deaths where COVID-19 is suspected or mentioned on death certificate.

government's official rolling tally, which was 34,796 as of Monday, is lower because it only records deaths after positive tests, according to AFP.

Coronavirus in Pakistan

Meanwhile, Pakistan reported 1,841 new cases of vel coronavirus and 36 fatalities during last 24 hours, taking total infections in country to nearly 44,000 with 939 deaths, health ministry said on Tuesday.

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As coronavirus cases in national capital Islamabad crossed 1,000-mark, or parts of Pakistan also continued to witness a surge in infections. Till w, 17,241 cases have been detected in Sindh, 15,976 in Punjab, 6,230 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 2,820 in Balochistan, 1,034 in Islamabad, 550 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 115 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

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(With PTI inputs)