Islamabad (Web Desk): The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) on Monday identified 20 cities across the country with potential Covid-19 hotspots.
According to press release issued by the centre, the NCOC identified 20 cities across the country using a strategy termed as 'testing, tracing and quarantining (TTQ). The strategy involves ramping up Covid-19 testing followed by rapidly tracing the contacts of confirmed positive cases, and effective quarantining of positive and suspected cases.
The cities have been identified by the NCOC for the enforcement of "necessary restrictive measures" includes Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranawala, Sialkot, Gujarat, Dera Ghazi Khan, Swat, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Ghotki, Larkana, Khairpur, Malakand, Mardan.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan on Monday rose to 144,478 after 5,248 new infections were reported over the past 24 hours.
Overall, 54,138 cases were reported in Punjab, 53,805 in Sindh, 18,013 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 8,177 in Balochistan, 8,569 in Islamabad, 1,129 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 647 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
According to the government's Covid-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached 2,729 with 97 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours while around 53,721 patients have fully recovered from the disease.