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Pakistan Records Over 100 New Coronavirus Cases


Hospital staff pray before joining their shift, outside a hospital setup for coronavirus infected patients in the southwestern city of Quetta on March 26.
Hospital staff pray before joining their shift, outside a hospital setup for coronavirus infected patients in the southwestern city of Quetta on March 26.

Pakistani authorities said that more than 120 more coronavirus cases were recorded in the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,566 cases, including 15 deaths.

Health Minister Zafar Mirza said on March 29 that 71 percent of coronavirus cases in Pakistan were imported, mainly pilgrims who returned from neighboring Iran, which has seen the Mideast's worst outbreak.

Cases in Pakistan have been gradually increasing despite the imposition of a lockdown in the country of 220 million.

Lawmakers and experts have voiced fears of an exponential increase in the coming days and urged the government to conduct more testing.

“The data coming in of patients across the country is not indicative of the true picture. The real number of patients is much higher,” Attaur Rehman, the head of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s task force on science and technology, told reporters.

The Health Ministry said that there were 13,324 suspected cases of the new coronavirus. More than 8,000 were in quarantine across the country.

-- With Reporting by Dawn.com

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