58% of Pakistan's COVID-19 cases locally transmitted

Islamabad: Around 58 per cent of Pakistan total coronavirus cases are locally transmitted, data released by the National Command and Operation Centre revealed on Thursday.

As of Thursday, the total number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan has increased to 6,865 with 128 deaths.

During March, when the pandemic began spreading in the country, Pakistan's number of imported coronavirus cases, a large chunk of which came from Iran, was higher than locally transmitted ones, Dawn news quoted the Centre as saying.

But as imported cases began slowing as the government suspended international flights on March 21, reports of infected patients with no travel history began making the rounds.

By April 12, the Prime Minister's Assistant on Health, Zafar Mirza told media that around half of Pakistan's total positive cases were infected through local transmission.

Coordinator for National Emergency Centre on Polio Rana Safdar told Dawn news that the country's polio surveillance system will now be used to trace coronavirus cases, as it was the most effective virus detection system in place in the country.

According to Ministry of National Health Services Spokesperson Sajid Shah, Pakistan conducted 5,540 coronavirus tests on Wednesday.

This is the highest number of tests conducted over a 24-hour period in the country.

On an average, Pakistan conducts 2,500 tests in a day.

Shah told Dawn news hat Pakistan's total number of tests stood at 78,979, adding that as the number of tests conducted rises, so will the number of positive cases.

"In fact, the government's aim is to conduct 25,000 tests daily by the end of April and predictive modelling shows that in that case 1,000 new cases will be reported daily in the country on average," he said.