As many as 753 more people tested positive for COVID-19 during the past 24 hours across the country, taking the number of confirmed cases to 286,674.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), ten people died due to coronavirus-related complications during this period, the death toll from the disease in the country surges to 753.

The number of active coronavirus cases has dropped to 16,475 as 264,060 patients have recuperated.

As many as 19,221 more samples were tested over the previous 24 hours, taking the total number of tests conducted across the country thus far to more than 2.2 million.

Speaking at a press conference, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar had said the world is appreciating the smart lockdown policy of Prime Minister Imran Khan, which remained successful in containing the spread of coronavirus.

“Whatever the steps taken by the state and the government could not have been effective if the public had not cooperated with us,” he said. “

I would like to thank the media as well for sending our message to the public on what to do [to ward off the coronavirus],” he added.

The minister said that the government and the people had taken the right decisions and actions when it came to tackling the pandemic. He praised the smart lockdown initiative, stating that developed countries could also not shut down the economy for a longer period of time.

The federal minister warned people not to take the coronavirus situation lightly, adding that he had heard people saying the COVID-19 pandemic had been eliminated.

“Ever since this announcement [lifting lockdown restrictions] was made, I have been hearing from people that coronavirus has been ended. I wish coronavirus would have been eliminated,” he said.

“However, unfortunately, the situation is not like that at the moment. We can’t say at this moment that coronavirus has been eliminated,” added the minister.

The minister said that the government reached out to more than 100,000 positive cases through the contact tracing system and were able to let them know that they were infected with the virus.