Govt urged comprehensive strategy to contain COVID-19

FAISALABAD: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) former president Mian Muhammad Idrees has called upon the federal government to evolve a comprehensive national strategy to contain ill-impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement issued on Monday, he said that Pakistan’s economy was already in deep crisis before the coronavirus outbreak, and the pandemic had aggravated the situation further.

Idress mentioned the IMF Extended Economic Facility (EEF) of US$ 6.6 billion had been extended to Pakistan to restructure and revive its economy.

He said that Pakistan had just started implementing it when coronavirus caused sluggishness in the global economy.

Experts had estimated that the world would bear approximately $8.8 trillion loss only due to coronavirus, he added.

Explaining its fallout on Pakistan, he said that another 8.3 million people will lose their jobs while the ratio of poverty will jump to 33.5pc. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has surged to 103,671 in Pakistan, while the death toll stands at 2,064.

According to the National Command and Control Center (NCOC), more than 3,773 cases of coronavirus were reported while 65 people succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours.

As many as 34,355 patients have recovered from the disease, while the country is still witnessing a consistent rise in the COVID-19 cases. Around 21 percent of the cases have foreign travel history while 79 percent of the cases are reported to be locally transmitted.

Pakistan has so far conducted 577,974 coronavirus tests and 16,548 in the last 24 hours. 27,110 coronavirus patients have recovered in the country whereas many are in critical condition.