Coronavirus updates, June 13: Latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic from Pakistan and around the world
Nationwide confirmed cases jump past 138,000, death toll surpasses 2,600; global death toll tops 425,000
Updated Saturday Jun 13 2020
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 138,378 on Saturday after new infections were confirmed in the country.
The province-wise break up of the total number of cases as of 11:41pm, June 13, is as follows:
Total confirmed cases: 138,378
• Sindh: 51,518
• Punjab: 52,601
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 17,450
• Balochistan: 8,028
• Islamabad Capital Territory: 7,163
• Gilgit-Baltistan: 1,044
• AJK: 574
Deaths: 2,627
• Punjab: 969
• Sindh: 816
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 661
• Balochistan: 83
• Islamabad Capital Territory: 71
• Gilgit-Baltistan: 16
• AJK: 11
More than 7.66 million people have been reported infected with the novel coronavirus globally and over 425,000 have died, according to an AFP tally.
Read on for the latest updates from Pakistan and around the world.
Disclaimer: There may be some discrepancy in the number of confirmed cases reported at the country level due to differences in figures quoted by federal and provincial authorities.
Geo News is constantly gathering fresh information from concerned authorities and striving to keep our readers up to date with the most accurate information available.
Orange: General updates coming in from Pakistan
Red: Reports on new cases in Pakistan
Maroon: Reports on new deaths in Pakistan
Green: Reports on recovered patients in Pakistan
END OF LIVE UPDATES FOR JUNE 13
Live updates for June 14 to continue here.
11:41pm — Lahore, Pakistan — Punjab reports 31 deaths, 2,514 new cases
11:33pm — Santiago, Chile — Chile president replaces health minister amid COVID-19 deaths controversy
Chile President Sebastian Pinera has replaced Health Minister Jaime Manalich amid controversy over the country’s figures for deaths from the coronavirus outbreak.
Pinera said Manalich had spared “no effort” in carrying out his “difficult and noble duty” to protect Chileans' health. He replaced him with Oscar Enrique Paris, an academic and medical doctor.
The sudden reshuffle comes as Chile faces its toughest month in the pandemic so far, with spiraling active cases and deaths rates.
The country now has the highest number of confirmed cases per million people in Latin America, reporting 167,355 cases on Saturday and 3,101 deaths.
Manalich, a tough-talking kidney specialist who once ran one of Chile's top hospitals, has won praise for an aggressive campaign to keep hospitals supplied with ventilators and protective equipment and leading detailed daily press conferences.
But there have been frequent reports of spats among health ministry officials, and Manalich has been criticised by opposition politicians, mayors, medical experts and social groups for refusing to release more detailed contagion data or apply lockdowns sooner and for successive changes in criteria for recording deaths and cases.
11:10pm — Rome, Italy — AstraZeneca agrees to supply Europe with 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine
AstraZeneca Plc has signed a contract with European governments to supply the region with its potential vaccine against the coronavirus, the British drugmaker’s latest deal to pledge its drug to help combat the pandemic.
The contract is for up to 400 million doses of the vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, the company said on Saturday, adding that it was looking to expand manufacturing of the vaccine, which it said it would provide for no profit during the pandemic.
Deliveries will start by the end of 2020.
10:32pm — Quetta, Balochistan —PCR testing kicks off at Khuzdar teaching hospital laboratory
The Balochistan government has announced that PCR testing will now be conducted in the laboratory developed at the Khuzdar teaching hospital.
Khuzdar and other nearby districts will be able to utilise the facility for testing.
The facility marks a significant increase in testing capacity for the province.
10:11pm — Beijing, China — Chinese capital confirms 6 new cases
09:47pm — Peshawar, Pakistan — JI chief Sirajul Haq asks people to exercise caution as 'no more beds available'
09:25pm — Quetta, Pakistan — Balochistan reports 3 deaths, 162 new cases
The Balochistan health department has reported three more deaths from the virus, taking the toll to 83.
A rise in infections by 162 was also reported, with which the tally crossed 8,000 to hit 8,028.
08:56pm — Lahore, Pakistan — PML-N's Ahsan Iqbal calls PTI MNA Farrukh Habib to inquire about his health
PPP stalwart Ahsan Iqbal says he spoke with PTI MNA Farrukh Habib who contracted the coronavirus and is "happy to learn" he has no major COVID-19 symptoms. "Hope he recovers soon. Ameen!" he added.
Iqbal himself has also tested positive for COVID-19 and is under quarantine.
08:45pm — Gilgit, Gilgit-Baltistan — NDMA donates PCR machine to strengthen testing capacity
08:30pm — Karachi, Pakistan — Sindh's cases at a glance
07:53pm — Maryland, USA — Infectious diseases expert shares tips on 'how to treat COVID at home'
07:33pm — Peshawar, Pakistan — KP reports highest daily toll yet
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has reported the highest number of infections yet at 1,035, taking the tally to 17,450.
Furthermore, it reported 19 more deaths, taking the grim total to 661.
07:22pm — Lahore, Pakistan — Actemra drug approved for trial
Punjab health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has said that the Actemra drug has been approved for trial by the government.
An initial trial of 1,000 doses will be carried out.
According to a notice by the specialised healthcare department, the trial will be conducted "under strict criteria" in public hospitals and under the supervision of a coronavirus experts advisory group.
Dr Rashid said that so far, in whichever patient had been given the drug and who had recovered, it could not be ascertained if the drug alone led to the recovery.
07:06pm — Quetta, Pakistan — Balochistan govt scraps decision to allow reopening of restaurants
Balochistan government spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani has said that after receiving complaints over safety measures not being adequately taken, the government has scrapped the decision of allowing restaurants to reopen.
He said that hotels and restaurants are allowed to entertain take away orders.
06:53pm — Paris, France — France plans low-key tennis return in July
French tennis has announced a cautious step out of the coronavirus lockdown with the return of professional tournaments in July including a mini-tour on the Riviera.
The idea of a small tour in the south has been pushed for a while by former French professional Thierry Ascione and it will be "created and organised" by the French Tennis Federation (FFT) as the "Challenge Elite FFT".
It will be made up of three tournaments with events in Nice (July 6-11), Cannes (July 13-18), and Villeneuve-Loubet (July 20-25).
The events will be open to 24 men and 12 women. Most of the places will be reserved for players whose rankings would, at the least, allow them to enter the qualifying rounds of Grand Slam events.
The semi-finals and final will be broadcast on the FFT's web channel.
06:24pm — Gabrone, Bostwana — Botswana capital in lockdown after new virus cases detected
Authorities in Botswana declared a strict lockdown in the capital Gaborone from Saturday after the discovery of 12 new cases of the coronavirus.
Under the measure, no one will be allowed to leave the Gaborone region, the head of the presidential COVID-19 Task Force, Kereng Masupu, said in a statement.
No movement would be permitted without a permit and only essential services will be allowed to stay open.
Authorities took the decision after 12 new cases, half of them in the capital, were registered in the landlocked southern African country of 2.2 million.
The new cases brought to 60 the number of infections in the country, with one death.
The World Health Organisation warned on Thursday that the pandemic is accelerating in Africa, which has thus far been less badly hit by the virus than Europe, Asia and the Americas.
05:53pm — Lahore, Pakistan — Dr Yasmin Rashid talks about ventilator availability in Lahore
Punjab health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, speaking about ventilator availability in Lahore, says that a total of 197 ventilators were allotted for COVID-19 patients in public hospitals and 104 in private facilities.
Currently, 63 are available in public hospitals and 72 in private hospitals, she said.
05:47pm — Lahore, Pakistan — Punjab health minister says 30-40% hospital capacity available across the province
Punjab health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid says across the province about 40% capacity is available across the province.
About 10,000 beds are available which were set aside for coronavirus patients, she said. She also said 502 high dependency bed units are available.
Around 3,055 people are currently under treatment for COVID-19, of which 215 are critical and 193 are on ventilators.
She said a total of 540 ventilators had been set aside for COVID-19 patients, so the remaining are still available.
05:43pm — Lahore, Pakistan — PM says selective lockdown to be enforced in Punjab
The premier says he has come to the conclusion after a meeting with Punjab government representatives that a selective lockdown must be enforced in the province versus a complete lockdown, after tracing hotspots of the virus.
He said that Usman Dar has also been told to beef up the Tiger force if need be.
05:39pm — Lahore, Pakistan — PM says lockdown not the way to go, SOPs must be followed
In a televised address to the nation, the prime minister says it must be realised a complete lockdown can not be imposed and people will have to religiously follow standard operating procedures.
05:14pm — Lahore, Pakistan — Punjab govt reminds people to wear a mask, maintain distance in the presence of the elderly
A Punjab disaster management authority awareness message has warned people that the elderly are "especially vulnerable" to COVID-19.
People must ensure a 6ft distance and always wear a mask in their presence. The elderly must also not leave home unless there's an emergency.
04:49pm — Islamabad, Pakistan — More than 13,116 SOP violations in last 24 hours
The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) says it has observed more than 13,116 violations of health guidelines issued by the government.
As a result, more than 1,541 markets/shops, 33 industries and 1,429 transport vehicles were warned or shut down. Fines were also imposed.
04:35pm — Lahore, Pakistan — PM chairs meeting on Punjab's action plan to curb virus
Prime Minister Imran Khan chairs a meeting on the safety measures being taken in Punjab to curb the spread of the virus.
A detailed briefing was given to the premier about the current situation in the province.
04:30pm — Paris, France — Global virus death toll passes 425,000: AFP tally
The coronavirus pandemic has killed 425,000 people since it emerged in China late last year, according to an AFP tally of official sources at 0130 GMT.
A total of 425,282 deaths have now been recorded from 7,632,517 cases.
Europe has registered 186,843 deaths from 2,363,538 cases, but the epidemic is progressing most rapidly in Latin America, where there have been a total of 76,343 deaths recorded from 1,569,938 cases.
The United States remains the country with the most recorded deaths at 114,643, ahead of Brazil which on Friday became the second worst-hit nation with 41,828 deaths. Britain is next with 41,481 deaths, followed by Italy (34,223) and France (29,374).
4:00pm — Karachi, Pakistan — Sindh records 2,262 new cases, 23 deaths
Confirmed cases in the country jumped to on Saturday after new cases were detected in Sindh.
According to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah 2,262 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours taking the provincial tally to 51,518.
He added that 23 people have also died in the province to take the tally to 816.
3:30pm — Jakarta, Indonesia — Indonesia reports 1,014 new COVID-19 cases, 43 deaths
Indonesia reported on Saturday 1,014 new coronavirus infections and 43 more deaths, taking the total number of cases to 37,420 and fatalities to 2,091, health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said.
Yurianto said 563 more patients had recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases to 13,776.
All the new cases were locally transmitted, he added.
Former PM Yousaf Raza Gillani tests positive for virus
1:50pm — Karachi, Pakistan — Civil Hospital’s coronavirus lab closes for three days
The coronavirus testing lab at Karachi’s Civil Hospital has been closed for three days due to an increase in the number of patients, reported Geo News.
According to MS Civil Hospital, due to a sudden increase in the number of patients, the hospital had to close its testing lab for three days.
The MS added that the hospital is yet to give the test results of thousands of samples.
Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi tests positive for virus
1:20pm — Moscow, Russia — Russia's coronavirus cases pass 520,000
Russia on Saturday reported 8,706 new coronavirus cases, bringing its cumulative infection tally to 520,129.
The authorities said 114 people had died of the virus in the last 24 hours, raising the official national death toll to 6,829.
12:55pm — New Delhi, India — India records biggest single-day jump in cases
India reported its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus cases on Saturday, adding 11,458 confirmed infections and taking its total count to more than 300,000, according to data from the federal health ministry.
India is the fourth-worst affected country in the world, having surpassed the United Kingdom on Friday, with cases steadily increasingly despite a nationwide lockdown that began in late March and has since been loosened.
Confirmed cases in the worst-hit western state of Maharashtra moved past the 100,000 mark, data showed on Saturday. The national capital New Delhi, where the health system has also been reeling, saw more than 2,000 new cases.
India has 145,779 active cases, and has recorded 8,884 deaths.
12:30pm — New South Wales, Australia — Australia's largest state reports first local case in weeks
Australia's largest state of New South Wales on Saturday reported its first locally transmitted COVID-19 case since late May, a sign the threat from the pandemic is far from over as social distancing restrictions continue to be eased.
The state recorded four new coronavirus cases overnight, taking the total number in Australia to nearly 7,300.
Australia has so far been successful in curbing the spread of the coronavirus, with many parts of the country claiming to have eliminated the disease already. The country has reported 102 deaths and is on track to fully re-open its economy by next month.
Latest on confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world
11:30am — Berlin, Germany — Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise to 186,022
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 348 to 186,022, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.
The reported death toll rose by 18 to 8,781 the tally showed.
One-fifth of Britain's coronavirus patients were infected in hospitals: Telegraph
About one in five of Britain's patients with COVID-19 caught the disease while in hospital, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported, citing papers by government scientists.
At the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain, transmission within hospitals was believed to account for up to 22% of cases in hospitalised patients, and up to 11% of deaths, the report added.
11:00am — Peshawar, Pakistan — KP Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ghani tests positive for virus
Global coronavirus death toll passes 425,000: AFP tally
9:50am — Islamabad, Pakistan — Confirmed cases top 132,000, death toll crosses 2,500
Confirmed cases in the country jumped to 132,405 on Saturday after new cases were reported in Islamabad, Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
According to the national dashboard, 2,705 new cases were reported in Punjab, 464 in the federal capital and 40 new cases in AJK.
The death toll also climbed to 2,551 after Punjab reported 48, Islamabad 11 and AJK reported one new death in the last 24 hours.
US COVID-19 death toll rises to 114,613
9:20am — Brasilia, Brazil — Brazil's COVID-19 death toll passes Britain, world's second highest
Brazil's COVID-19 death toll overtook Britain's on Friday to become the second highest in the world after the United States, according to numbers released by the Brazilian Health Ministry.
Brazil reported a total of 828,810 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 25,982 new infections and another 909 fatalities, raising the death toll to 41,828, the Health Ministry said.
WHO chief calls for any COVID-19 vaccine to be shared as a public good
Vaccines for the new coronavirus should be made available as a global public good, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, to ensure everyone had fair access to any life-saving products that are developed.
"Many leaders...have promoted the idea of making any vaccine a global public good, but that should continue to be promoted," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.
"More leaders should join the boat, and we need to have a truly global political commitment and global consensus before we even have the product," he said. "That is what we are pushing."
8:45am — Shanghai, China — Beijing wholesale market temporarily shut after new coronavirus infections
Authorities in Beijing have temporarily shut a major wholesale agricultural market following a rise in locally transmitted novel coronavirus infections in China's capital city over the past two days.
The closure of the Xinfadi wholesale market came after two men working at a meat research centre who had recently visited the market were reported on Friday as having been infected by the novel coronavirus. It was not immediately clear how the men had been infected.
Concern is growing of a second wave of the new virus, even in many countries that seemed to have curbed its spread. It was first reported at a seafood market in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province, in December.
Beijing authorities said more than 10,000 people at the market will take nucleic acid tests to detect coronavirus infections.
8:30am — Rome, Italy — Italy's coronavirus death toll rises by 56 to 34,223
Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 56 against 53 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, taking the total toll to 34,223.
The official tally of new cases rose by just 163 against 379 on Thursday, but this was muddied by a recalculation of past data by the southern region of Campania, which subtracted previous cases and reported a total of -229 on Friday.
The northern region of Lombardy, where the outbreak was first identified, remains by far the worst affected of Italy's 20 regions, reporting 272 new infections on Friday.
The total number of confirmed cases nationwide since Italy's outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 now amounts to 236,305, the seventh-highest global tally.
11:47pm/June 12 — Geneva, Switzerland — Coronavirus hitting the Americas hardest, says WHO
The Americas are bearing the brunt of the global coronavirus pandemic at present, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, with North and South America currently having four of the 10 worst hit countries in the world, Reuters reported.
The disease was “highly active” in Central and South America, the WHO’s top emergency expert Mike Ryan said, highlighting problems in Brazil and Mexico.
The current situation in Brazil, now one of the global hot-spots for the virus, was of increasing concern especially in heavily-populated cities, he told a press conference.
The country’s health system was “still coping”, although some intensive care units were at a critical stage and under heavy pressure with more than 90% bed occupancy rates, Ryan said.
10:45pm/June 13 — Islamabad, Pakistan — 'Ambitious' budget to be adjusted if coronavirus crisis continues: Hafeez Shaikh
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said late Friday the "ambitious" Budget 2020-21 would have to be adjusted if the coronavirus crisis continued.
Responding to Geo News talk show host Shahzeb Khanzada's question of how it was possible to achieve a 27% increase in revenue, given the gross domestic product (GDP) rate being 2.1% and an inflation of 6.5%, Shaikh said he agreed with the anchorperson because it "does seem ambitious at the moment".
"You're right, it seems ambitious right now. There's so much uncertainty about the future so we cannot say much. If corona [virus crisis] continues and its severity increases and the lockdown in some way or the other goes on, then this will need to be adjusted," the adviser noted.
Questions over virus models that prompted lockdowns
When the novel coronavirus began to circulate globally at the beginning of March, scientists turned to statistical models to predict the severity of the pandemic. The news was stark, AFP reported.
The epidemiological models showed that COVID-19 could infect hundreds of millions of people and kill millions worldwide, prompting governments to enter lockdown in a bid to avoid the worst.
Now, as much of Europe gingerly exits confinement, questions are being asked about the methods used and the results produced in the calculations that shocked authorities into taking unprecedented measures to enforce social distancing.
"We gave far too much weight to the models," Jean-Francois Toussaint, director of France's Irmes medical research center told AFP.
"These mathematical models depend on too many factors to be accurate," he said.
