By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD (AA):  The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan passed the 5,000 mark as the country reported 254 new cases in the last 24 hours, health authorities said on Sunday.

The total number of cases is now at 5,038, while 14 more fatalities in a day raised the death toll to 86, according to the Health Ministry.

The ministry said 37 patients are in critical condition, while 1,026 people have recovered across the country.

Some 61,800 people have been tested in the country of over 200 million people, with almost 2,800 tests conducted over the past 24 hours.

The northeastern Punjab province, which accounts for more than half of the country’s population, is the worst-hit area in Pakistan with more than 2,400 cases.

The southern Sindh province has over 1,300 cases, the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded nearly 700 cases, and the southwestern Balochistan province registered some 230 cases, according to the ministry data.

The northern Gilgit Baltistan region accounts for 216 of the country’s total cases, while the capital Islamabad has 119, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir has 35 cases so far.

The report showed that death ratio in confirmed cases is so far 1.7%, while recoveries stand at 20.4%.

Lahore city, the capital of Punjab province, is so far the worst-hit city. It reported 20.01% of the total confirmed cases while the southern port city of Karachi stands second with 18.22% of cases.

After originating in China last December, COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has spread to at least 185 countries and regions across the world, with its epicenter shifting to Europe and the U.S.

The pandemic has killed nearly 109,000 people, and infected over 1.77 million, while more than 404,000 people have recovered from the disease, according to figures compiled by the U.S.’ Johns Hopkins University.

[Photo: Women stand in queue for receiving money within the scope of the Ehsaas Program during lockdown of Sindh province amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Karachi on April 10, 2020. Photographer: Muhammad Sabir Mazhar/AA]