COVID-19 cases in Pakistan surge past 20,000

Islamabad, May 05: Pakistan's tally of the coronavirus cases crossed the 20,000-mark on Monday after 1,083 new infections were diagnosed, the health ministry said.

In the last 24 hours, 1,083 new cases were reported, taking the total to 20,186 patients. There were 22 deaths during this period, upping the fatalities to 462. A total of 5,590 patients have recovered in the country, the ministry said.

The authorities have so far conducted 2,12,511 tests, including 9,522 during the period.

The Ministry of National Health Services said that out of the total number of patients, Punjab province reported 7,524 cases, Sindh 7,465, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 3,129, Balochistan 1,218, Islamabad 415, Gilgit-Baltistan 364 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 71 cases.

Pakistan's total COVID-19 tally so far stood at 20,186.

According to a report in the Dawn newspaper, a critical coronavirus patient in the Hyderabad city of Sindh, as an experimental therapy, was injected with convalescent plasma of a recovered person to treat the disease.

The development was confirmed by the Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) isolation ward's focal person Aftab Hussain Phull.

The plasma was donated by a recovered coronavirus patient to the Diagnostic and Research Laboratory at the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences.

"He was given the plasma after managing his condition as best as possible under the given circumstances," Phull said.

On April 30, the Sindh government allowed three hospitals in the province to carry out clinical trials for the experimental use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma for passive immunisation."

The hospitals included Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital in Karachi, the National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD) in Karachi and LUH, a government facility in Hyderabad.

Prior to this, the government had approved clinical trials for plasma therapy in addition to approving locally made ventilators for treating critically ill patients and granting permission for manufacturing sanitisers and chloroquine, the report said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the nation was coming out of the fear of the pandemic due to a well-devised strategy adopted by the government to cope with the health crisis.

The prime minister made the remarks during a meeting with his Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan at his Banigala residence on Sunday to discuss the COVID-19 crisis, the relief package for the poor and sessions of the parliament requisitioned by the opposition for May 6.