World Health Organisation Chief Dr Tedros Adhanom has praised Pakistani Government’s response against coronavirus and “recognised the positive trend of virus curtailment” in the country.

Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar said that Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke to the WHO DG today, where he urged the health body to formulate travel rules without any discrimination for all the countries in the light of the coronavirus pandemic

“PM asked WHO to develop travel guidelines to be adopted by all countries to ensure that low income countries are not discriminated against in global travel.”

An official statement said that the prime minister apprised the WHO DG of the measures undertaken by Pakistan to stem the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

In relation to the premier’s concern regarding travel restrictions, the global health watchdog assured the country’s top representative that it is creating standard operating procedures to remove travel restrictions in the future. In the conversation, the two sides also discussed the contemporary situation due to the global pandemic.

The prime minister told the WHO top official that the country has amplified healthcare facilities in wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tedros also lauded the Pakistani Government’s official response and measures to the disease that has infected millions across the globe.

Pakistan as of today recorded 233,500 cases of the coronavirus and 4,800 deaths. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz on July 4 had credited Prime Minister Imran Khan’s “smart lockdown” strategy for striking a balance between people’s lives and starvation.

Faraz, while claiming that the strategy had “succeeded” against the virus, said: “The world also followed the smart lockdown strategy of PM Imran.”

The minister was speaking at an event at Polyclinic Hospital to acknowledge the frontline role of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff in the fight against coronavirus in the last 100 days.

“The strategy of smart lockdown is succeeding in Pakistan and its results can be seen in Islamabad and other areas of the country,” he said, adding: “In Islamabad, 771 cases of coronavirus were reported on June 1 and now the number of cases dropped to 113 due to the smart lockdown strategy.”

The information minister appreciated that people had adopted SOPs and helped in mitigating the disease.

“The efforts against coronavirus remain successful because of a balanced campaign. However, the danger of coronavirus still exists and it is our national obligation to follow the SOPs,” he added.

The country recorded 3,344 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours, taking the countrywide tally to 231,817 and casualties to 4,762 with addition of 50 more deaths in the past 24 hours.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre, 3,344 new cases were detected when 22,271 tests were conducted in the previous 24 hours.

95,407 COVID-19 patients are undergoing treatment and 131,649 patients have recuperated from the disease.

94,528 cases have been detected in Sindh so far, 81, 963 in Punjab, 28,116 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 10,814 in Balochistan, 13, 494 in Islamabad, 1,342 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 1,561 in Gilgit Baltistan.

Worldwide coronavirus tally

The number of coronavirus cases across the world has surpassed over 7.5 million while the pandemic has so far claimed more than 536,000 lives.

The United States tops both in number of cases and deaths with over 2.9 million cases and more than 132,000 deaths followed by Brazil with over 1.6 million cases and more than 64,000 deaths.

Over 6.5 million patients have so far recovered from the disease across the world.

1,708 fresh coronavirus cases were detected in Sindh in the past 24 hours after 12,479 tests conducted in the province.

Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah in a statement on the coronavirus situation said that the total number of infections across the province has soared to 96,236 as the province conducted a total of 514,905 tests.

Shah said that 46 more patients of coronavirus died in the last 24 hours across the province, taking death toll from COVID-19 to 1,572. 679 people were discharged to their respective homes after recovery, taking the tally of recoveries to 53,855.

The chief minister said that 40,809 coronavirus patients are undergoing treatment in Sindh, including 38,875 quarantined at homes, 327 at isolation centres and 1,607 at hospitals.

623 of the patients under treatment at hospitals are in critical condition and 96 of them are on ventilators.

Murad Ali Shah said that from total 1,708 new coronavirus cases detected in the province in past 24 hours 919 were reported in Karachi as the city has continued to report majority of the cases in Sindh.

In District East of Karachi 133 cases were reported, 485 in District South,72 cases in District Central, 104 in Korangi district, 64 in Malir and 62 cases reported in District West of the city.

646 new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in Punjab in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections in the province to 81,963.

According to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, 13 more people died due to complications related to the virus, taking the death toll in the province to 1,884. More than 45,000 patients have been cured of the disease in the province.

A total of 533,040 tests have been conducted in the province thus far.