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 the coronavirus, pushing the death toll to 2,729, the health ministry said on Monday.

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

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

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

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

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

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