Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (PM) on Health Dr Zafar Mirza on July 1 said that the number of coronavirus cases was rapidly increasing by mid-June but the country was now in a better position than it was two weeks ago in the continuing battle against COVID-19.

“The ratio of confirmed infections has gone down from 22% to 15% while the number of suspected cases has also decreased,” the premier’s aide said in an interview, adding that the rate of fatalities was also lower than before.

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Dr Mirza maintained that the government was to now determine over the next couple of days if Pakistan had passed the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak or was still only heading towards it. “If the situation remains stable in the coming days and the number of coronavirus cases continues to decrease, it would be good news for us.”    

While the number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan is steadily declining amid selective lockdowns across the country and an increase in the number of recovered patients, it is not necessarily due to a decline in the rate of infections and an alleged lower testing rate could be the actual reason.

However, according to official numbers, in June, a total of 140,726 confirmed cases of coronavirus were reported in Pakistan with at least 2,804 deaths.

The second week of the said month proved to be the worst in terms of infections as 40,604 were reported. The third week was the most deadly as at least 856 people lost their lives to the virus.

The last week of June saw 24,324 infections while the number of fatalities stood at 591 — 40 more than those recorded in the first week of the same month.

It merits a mention that while PM Imran Khan and some members of his team, including senior doctors and other health experts, seem to believe that the virus peaked in Pakistan, especially in Punjab, during the second week of June and the curve has now started to flatten, Pakistan on Friday overtook Italy to become the 11th worst affected country from COVID-19.