ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration is facing serious shortage of coronavirus testing kits as new cases have overwhelmed the health facilities, the officials said.

According to sources in the Ministry of National Health Services and Regulations, the coronavirus cases after the Eid in the limits of federal capital have witnessed a four-fold increase as it jumped from 1,457 cases on May 23, 2020 to 5,329 cases on Monday.

The Covid-19 has claimed 52 lives in the federal capital, while 843 people have recovered so far. Officials said that normally the Covid-19 test results were provided to the people within three to four days but now as a result of testing kit shortage, seven to eight days are taken. All the samples collected through various points and mobile teams are sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad for tests, and over the past two days the local government has also started testing at Union Council-level, therefore the system is overloaded and results are taking time, the officials maintained.

Giving the reason for manifold increase in the Covid-19 cases, the officials said that easing the lockdown and allowing people mobility was the main cause for the spread of the coronavirus cases.

They added that the authorities were also not taking serious steps in implementing the SOPs as a result the disease was spreading rapidly.

Officials said that the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir took serious measures to check Covid-19 cases as a result so far only 396 cases had been reported there with eight deaths, and similar actions have also been taken by the Gilgit-Baltistan government, wherein so far 932 cases have been reported, and 13 deaths have occurred.

While in the rest of the country, governments have failed to take serious steps as a result cases are multiplying with every passing day.

According to latest figures, released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) the nationwide coronavirus cases have jumped up to 104,190, and Pakistan has moved up to 16 position worldwide on account of the most Covid-19 cases.

Punjab is on top, on account of total coronavirus cases with 38,903 cases followed by Sindh with 38,108 cases, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with 14,006 cases, Balochistan with 6,516 cases, Gilgit-Baltistan 932 cases, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir 396 cases.

The national death tally from coronavirus in Pakistan has crossed 2,000 mark, and reached 2,079.

Sindh is on top with 715 deaths, followed by the Punjab 683 deaths, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 587 deaths, Balochistan 54 deaths, Gilgit-Baltistan 13 deaths, and the AJK eight deaths.