By Islamuddin Sajid
ISLAMABAD (AA) – Pakistan’s death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 71 after five more patients lost their lives in the last 24 hours, health authorities said on Saturday.
The total number of confirmed cases surged to 4,788 with 190 new cases reported, according to the Health Ministry.
The ministry said 50 of patients are in critical condition, while 762 people recovered across the country.
A total of 57,836 people have been tested in the country of over 200 million people, with 2,457 tests conducted over the past 24 hours.
The northeastern Punjab province, which accounts for more than half of the country’s population, is the worst-hit area in Pakistan with 2,336 cases.
The southern Sindh province has 1,214 cases, the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 656 cases, and the southwestern Balochistan province recorded 220 cases, according to the ministry data.
The northern Gilgit Baltistan region accounts for 215 of the country’s total cases, while the capital Islamabad has 113, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir has 34 cases so far.
According to the report, among the total confirmed cases, 6.60% patients are aged between 10-19, around 20% patients are between 20-29, 14% are from 50 to 59-year-old, while some 12% are between 60-69.
Data showed that more men are infected with the virus than women.
The virus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, and has spread to 185 countries and regions in four months.
The pandemic has killed almost 103,000 and infected an excess of 1.69 million, while nearly 377,000 patients have recovered, according to figures compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.