Clear early signs of fourth COVID-19 wave starting in Pakistan: Asad Umar
Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar warns of shutting down wedding halls, indoor restaurants and gyms if COVID-19 SOPs are not implemented. Says cases are increasing due to poor compliance with safety protocols. With 1,737 new infections, Pakistan recorded over 1,500 daily cases for the third continuous day Friday ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar Friday said there are clear early signs of the fourth COVID-19 wave starting in Pakistan due to poor compliance with standard operating procedures (SOPs) and the spread of the Delta variant. The federal minister, who is also the chief of the country’s apex COVID-19 body, said that he had warned two weeks back that the government’s artificial intelligence models are showing possible emergence of the fourth wave in July. He said that now there are “clear early signs of 4th wave starting” in the country due to “poor SOP compliance, coupled with the spread of variants of concern, Indian variant [Delta varian...