ISLAMABAD  , May 3  :  Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who also heads National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), has said that next few weeks are critical for Pakistan.

Asad Umar said that more than a year after coronavirus pandemic started, it continues to devastate globally and daily global cases now exceed 9 lakhs, highest since the start of pandemic.

He added that daily global deaths are now exceeding 15 thousand, nearing the peak of January 2021.

The planning minister while, urging the people to follow SOPs to avoid the spread of Covid-19, said the need for caution remains high.

On the other hand, Pakistan has reported 79 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 834,146. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 18,149 on Monday.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) 4,213 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

Punjab remains the worst-hit province in terms of deaths and cases followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Till now 8,572 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab 4,667 in Sindh, 3,392 in KP, 691 in Islamabad, 483 in Azad Kashmir, 237 in Balochistan, and 107 in GB.

Furthermore 306,929 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Punjab, 285,626 in Sindh, 120,064 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 76,209 in Islamabad, 22,620 in Balochistan, 17,371 in Azad Kashmir and 5,327 in Gilgit-Baltistan.