PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Health Taimur Saleem Jhagra on Saturday said the government was easing lockdown to facilitate the public.

Addressing a news conference in Peshawar, he urged the public and trader community to follow SOPs of the government to prevent the outbreak of coronavirus.

The Minister said the government was monitoring the statistics of coronavirus during the relaxed lockdown. If the virus spread at a greater ratio, the lockdown will be made strict again, he maintained.

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He said all markets and shops will be closed after 04:00 pm in the province. Similarly, markets will remain closed on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has provided thirty-five thousand corona testing kits to health department. Two PCR machines have also been provided to the health department.

Speaking on the occasion, Director General PDMA said the authority is providing all possible assistance to the health department in this critical hour.

The tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country has risen to 27, 474 with 1,637 new cases reported during the last twenty-four hours.

10,471 cases have so far been detected in Punjab, 9691 in Sindh, 4327 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1876 in Balochistan, 421 in Gilgit Baltistan, 609 in Islamabad and 79 in Azad Kashmir.

7,756 patients have so far recovered from the virus whilst the death toll stands at  618 with 24 new deaths reported during the last twenty-four hours.