Pakistan reports over 5,000 new cases, tally crosses 140,000-mark

Pakistan's COVID-19 cases reached 144,676 after 5,248 new infections were detected, while 97 more people have succumbed to coronavirus, pushing death toll to 2,729, health ministry said on Monday.

According to Ministry of National Health Services, 29,085 tests were done in last 24 hours taking total number of COVID-19 tests conducted in country to 897,650.

Out of total 144,676 infections, Punjab reported 54,138 cases, Sindh 53,805, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 18,013, Islamab 8,569, Balochistan 8,177, Gilgit-Baltistan 1,129 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 647.

ministry said that 97 more patients died in last 24 hours taking death toll to 2,729 and ar 53,721 have recovered.

Minister for Planning As Umar warned on Sunday that number of patients could reach upto 1.2 million by end of July.

According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, contagion has infected over 79,00,000 people and killed more than 4,30,000 across world. US is worst affected country with over 2.09 million cases and more than 1,15,000 deaths.

COVID-19, which originated in China's Wuhan city in December last year, has also battered world ecomy with International Monetary Fund saying that global ecomy is bound to suffer a "severe recession".