On Tuesday, the Federal Minister of Planning and Development Asad Umar said that the British variant of the novel coronavirus has strengthened its roots in the entire region.

According to the details, addressing median in Islamabad today, Asad Umar who is also the Chief of the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) stressed that strict implementation of health protocols can curb the spread of the virus.

He said that the prevalence of the epidemic recorded high in Punjab, Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, whereas the administration is doing its best to implement the SOPs.

Asad Umar said predicted a spike of coronavirus cases in the country during the last 10 days of Ramadan, as a major chunk of people visit markets.

The minister also revealed that over 1.3 million people have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19 across the country and sixty to seventy thousand vaccines are currently being administered on daily basis. It is our effort to enhance it to one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand after Eid-ul-Fitr, he added.

On the other hand, 118 more deaths due to coronavirus have been reported in the country during last 24 hours.

According to NCOC, total 50520 tests were conducted throughout the country during the last 24 hours out of which 4318 patients tested positive for coronavirus showing the positive ratio of 8.54 percent.

The death toll for the pandemic has mounted to 15619 while 638267 patients have fully recovered from the disease so far.