ISLAMABAD (Kyodo) – Pakistan on Wednesday reported a sharp spike in new corona virus infections, with a one-day record of 2,255 new cases because the country’s total crossed the 34,000 mark.

The number of new cases has almost doubled from 1,140 the previous day, according to figures reported by the Ministry of National Health Services.

During the same 24-hour period, 31 patients died from diseases that cause pneumonia, bringing the death rate to 737 since Pakistan’s first case was detected on February 26.

This is the first time that more than 2,000 cases were reported in one day and following the previous high on Saturday at 1,991.

Jawad Rana, an Islamabad-based field epidemiologist who previously worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, warned that these figures indicate a dangerous situation.

“From these statistics, I can see the problem is getting worse quickly,” he told Kyodo News.

“What everyone is missing here is that the numbers are going up, while the number of tests is almost static. This implies that there is a big outbreak happening,” he added.

The government boasts of having the best testing capabilities in South Asia, although the number of daily tests over the past week has remained around 12,000. He plans to increase this to 20,000.

Affirming the outbreak was under control, the government last Saturday further eased the lockdown by nearly two months to allow the resumption of some economic activity in the country.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, speaking at a virtual meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, said, “We have not seen an explosive increase in cases, and the number of deaths is still limited. We realize that there is no room to let our guards. down. ”

Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal, head of the National Disaster Management Authority, said at a press conference that the government’s optimistic reading about the situation was based on the number of deaths, patients with ventilators, and those who were critically ill, as well as hospital intensive care. unit occupancy.

There were only 92 patients who used ventilators, around 152 people were seriously ill, while the number of deaths was low, he said adding that the country had around 1,300 ventilators dedicated to COVID-19 patients.

The Pakistani Parliament, which resumed its work since Monday after a nearly two-month break due to the pandemic, has witnessed heated debate about the situation, with the opposition criticizing the government’s handling of it.

Two former prime ministers, while taking part in a debate at the National Assembly on Wednesday, accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of disappointing the country in its fight against the new corona virus.

His predecessor, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, accused the government of not having a coherent strategy, while former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said it had failed “to step up to the challenge.”