Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has becomethe latest top politician to be tested positive for the coronavirus on a daywhen authorities announced a record 990 new COVID-19 cases in the country.
The Ministry of National Health Services on Friday said that24 people have died in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll in the countryto 385.
A record 990 new infections were reported during the period,taking the country’s tally to 16,817, it said.
Qaiser is the second high-profile politician and a member ofthe ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party to be infected with the virus.Earlier, Governor of Sindh Imran Ismail tested positive for the deadly disease.
The speaker went into self isolation after he got his testresults on Thursday.
I tested positive for coronavirus and quarantined myself inmy house. I urge the entire nation to take preventive measures, he tweetedafter he received his test results from the National Institute of Health (NIH)in Islamabad.
Qaiser’s brother Abdul Wahid was quoted as saying by TheExpress Tribune that the speaker’s son and daughter also tested positive forthe disease and were quarantined.
Earlier, Qaiser’s brother-in-law and sister were alsodiagnosed to be infected with the virus.
Qaiser had reportedly hosted an Iftar dinner at hisresidence on Monday, in violation of the government’s social distancingguidelines, the report said.
Meanwhile, Advisor to Prime Minister Imran Khan on HealthZafar Mirza on Thursday said that the country could reach the peak of thepandemic by the end of May or middle of June.
But it can be different also as we are not sure andmonitoring the situation closely, he said.
The health ministry said that a total of 4,315 people haverecovered from the disease.
Punjab province reported 6,340 cases, Sindh 6,053,Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 2,627, Balochistan 1,049, Islamabad 343, Gilgit-Baltistan339 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 66 cases.
So far, 182,131 tests have been conducted, including 7,971on Thursday. A total of 3,706 patients were admitted in 717 hospitals withCOVID-19 facilities across the country. The rest of the patients were inisolation at their homes.
Other leading politicians suffering from the disease includePakistan Peoples Party lawmaker from Tharparkar and a leading Hindu leader RanaHamir Singh and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) lawmaker from Karachi Abdul Rasheed.
Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani was the firstpolitician to be diagnosed with the coronavirus in late March. He has recoveredfrom the disease.
Prime Minister Khan tested negative for the virus last week.
He agreed for the test after Faisal Edhi, the son of latephilanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi and chairman of the Edhi Foundation, who methim last week tested positive for the coronavirus.