PM hints of not closing the entire ‘Country’

In a video communication, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the third wave of Corona may prove to be more dangerous than the first two waves but due to lack of resources, the country cannot be completely locked down.

"I exercised precaution for a whole year. I never went to any wedding or even to a restaurant to eat. I practised social distancing and kept my mask on for the most part," the premier said.

He said it is important to understand that Pakistan "does not have the resources to go [under a complete lockdown] and feed people and take care of them, even countries far better off than Pakistan do not have the resources to do such a thing," the prime minister added.

"We don't have that many resources, so the country can't be completely locked down," he added.

Businesses and factories in the country can not close entirely, even the richest countries can not do it. All we can do is implement the SOPs.

He said it was feared that the third wave would be more dangerous than the first two. The rate at which the third wave is spreading will fill our hospitals. There is a shortage of vaccines in the world, the countries that promised to give vaccines are not even able to meet their own needs.

"With the variant from the UK that people have brought to Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar, where we are witnessing a rapid rise in cases," he said, urging people to realise the severity of the situation.

On Sunday, Pakistan has reported the highest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases for third consecutive days as the third wave of the pandemic continued to rage across the country.

According to the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), around 4,767 cases of coronavirus were reported while 57 people succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 14,215.

The total number of confirmed cases reached 654,591.

As many as 595,929 patients have recovered from the disease with 3,043 critical cases.

Punjab                                                                                        

The number of patients swelled to 212,918 in the province with 6,229 causalities.

Sindh

The number of infections has surged to 264,607 in the province, while the death toll has reached 4,491.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The confirmed cases have surged to 84,609 in the province with 2,283 casualties.

Balochistan

There are 19,497 confirmed cases while 206 patients have died from the infection so far.

AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan

There are 12,367 coronavirus cases in the AJK while the death toll has reached 344. On the other hand, there are 4,999 cases in GB with 103 coronavirus deaths.

Islamabad

There are 55,594 cases in the capital city while 559 people have lost their lives.