Pakistan’s daily infection rate has stayed under 1,000 for more than three weeks, occasionally dropping to 300 and prompting the government to further ease restrictions with restaurants, parks and even gyms opening next week.
Pakistan fully restored its domestic flight operation from August 6 midnight.
On Friday, Pakistan recorded 782 new cases in the last 24 hours and just 7 deaths. In all, Pakistan has reported 282,642 confirmed cases and 6,052 deaths.
With the detection of the 782 new cases, Pakistan’s coronavirus tally now stands at 282,645, the ministry said, adding that 258,099 patients so far have recovered from the deadly disease.
The country has currently 18,494 active cases, it said.
Of the total reported cases, Sindh recorded the maximum number of 122,759, COVID-19 patients, followed by Punjab at 94,040, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at 34,432, Islamabad at 15,182, Balochistan at 11,821, Gilgit-Baltistan at 2,287 and Kashmir at 2,124 cases.
The authorities have so far performed 2,079,333 tests, including 20,461 overnight, to detect the novel coronavirus. The government credits the consistently low numbers for the last few weeks to a strategy of smart lockdowns, where businesses and residential areas were shut and quarantined after recording spikes in cases.