Pakistan identifies 20 cities as coronavirus hotspots as infection tally reaches 1,44,676

Pakistan on Monday said it has identified 20 cities, including Islamabad and Lahore, as coronavirus hotspots as the COVID-19 cases in the country reached 144,676 and 97 more people succumbed to the disease, pushing the death toll to 2,729.

A meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was chaired by Planning Minister Asad Umar.

According to a statement issued after the meeting, a “tracking, testing and quarantine” strategy was being used to pinpoint the troubled areas and impose smart lockdowns.

It said the NCOC undertook a comprehensive review of potential clusters of coronavirus patients across Pakistan.

"A total of 20 cities across Pakistan have been identified as having likely increase in ratio/speed of infection which needs restrictive measures for containment of COVID-19" the statement said.

The cities include Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said the provincial government would impose a two-week lockdown in certain areas of Lahore from midnight.

Pakistan's COVID-19 cases reached 144,676 after 5,248 new infections were detected, the health ministry said.

According to the ministry, 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 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 Centre, 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".