Average daily coronavirus cases down by 39pc: Asad Umar

Asad Umar rejected the perception that the decline in cases was due to reduction in testing numbers

ISLAMABAD (APP) - Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Asad Umar on Thursday said that number of new cases of coronavirus in the country had been declined by 38.74 percent during first 15 days of current months when compared to same period of last month.

In his tweets, the minister informed that from June 1 to 15, average tests were 23,403 and from July 1 to 15 average tests were 22,969, whereas the average number of COVID-19 cases from June 1 to June 15 was 5056 daily while during same period of current month of July, the average declined to 3097 cases.

Asad Umar who is also head of National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Corona, rejected the perception that the decline in corona cases was due to reduction in testing numbers.

“Some (people are) saying, cases are down only due to testing reduction. If positivity ratio was same as in mid-June that is over 22 percent, the 24,262 tests done yesterday would have resulted in 5,500 cases, while the actual number was 2,145,” he said adding that decline was primarily due to a nearly 60 percent reduction in positivity.

Umar said the reduction in case was due to better and positive attitude of the people and effective administrative measures.

He also warned that the pandemic can spread only by irresponsible behavior of the people who did not follow the precautionary measures issued by the government to contain spread of the pandemic.