Prime Minister Imran Khan will chair a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) today to review the coronavirus situation across the country. With the second wave of COVID-19 well and truly underway, this meeting will involve some very critical decision-making indeed, particularly with regards to the extent to which Pakistan can afford another lockdown.
The meeting is expected take important decisions regarding smart lockdown and other measures to curb the infection. The meeting will also ratify decision of closure of educational institutions till January 10.
On the other hand, Pakistan has reported 48 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 379,883. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 7,744.
According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 3009 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
Sindh remains the worst-hit province by the pandemic in terms of cases followed by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Punjab has overtaken Sindh in terms of COVID-19 casualties.
Till now, a grand total of 164,651 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 115,138 in Punjab, 44,932 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 16,846 in Balochistan, 27,555 in Islamabad, 6,203 in Azad Kashmir and 4,558 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
PM Imran Khan directs health ministry to start coronavirus vaccine production