ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development and National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) head Asad Umar said on Saturday that government may have to opt for another lockdown in parts of the country if there is a continued increase in coronavirus cases.

Asad Umar on Saturday chaired a meeting of NCOC to discuss the latest Covid situation in the country and implementation of coronavirus SOPs.

During the meeting, the forum expressed concern over rising coronavirus cases. "The third wave of coronavirus has started in Pakistan and lockdown can be imposed in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to curb the spread of coronavirus," warned the minister. "The COVID-19 tests positivity ratio in the country has reached 6pc, which is alarming," he added.

The NCOC head directed provinces to strictly enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent coronavirus the further spread of coronavirus. He said that the UK coronavirus strain is spreading faster in Pakistan. He appealed to the masses to continue following the standard operating procedures (SOPs) designed to counter the spread of the coronavirus.

Pakistan has recorded 46 more coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 13,476.

According to the latest statistics of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the COVID-19 has claimed 46 more lives and 2,338 fresh infections were reported during the said period. The total count of active cases is 19,764 and the positivity rate increases up to 5.5 per cent.

In the past 24 hours, as many as 1,231 patients have recovered from the virus in a day and 1,720 patients are still in critical condition.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), with the fresh inclusion of the infections in the country the national tally of cases now currently stands at 602,536.