Coronavirus in Pakistan: ‘Danger is higher than ever,’ warns Asad Umar

• Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar on Saturday has called for unity in response to the third wave of coronavirus.
  
• The federal minister said that the need for caution is clear.
  
• He says that we have alhamdulillah been spared the worst by timely decisions.

ISLAMABAD: Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar on Saturday has called for unity in response to the third wave of coronavirus, warning that the "danger is higher than ever".

On Twitter, the federal minister said that the need for caution is clear. "Need the country to unite in response and achieve once again what we achieved in the first wave, for which we received global praise. Inshallah, we will do it again, together," he said in a message on Twitter.

The federal minister, who is also chief of the country’s COVID-19 body, presented the example of a small country like Nepal which saw an exponential rise in cases going up above 7,000 daily.

Read more: Atleast 120 more die from coronavirus in Pakistan

"Deaths also rose sharply. You can see the entire region is exploding with cases and deaths, in the latest covid wave. We have alhamdulillah been spared the worst by timely decisions." Umar noted.

Pakistan reported 120 more deaths from coronavirus, taking the national death toll to 18,797 on Saturday.

About 4,109 more people contracted the infection, increasing the total caseload to 854,240 nationwide.

The daily data issued by the National Command and Operation Centre showed that Pakistan carried out 48,103 COVID-19 tests, out of which more than 4,000 returned positive.