The Latest: Pakistan's testing drops by about 1/3 in week

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s daily COVID-19 testing has dropped by about a third in a matter of days, even as the country is being urged to increase testing.

The 21,835 tests conducted in the last 24 hours until Thursday morning was down nearly 10,000 from a high of more than 31,000 tests less than one week ago.

In a letter to the government earlier this month, The World Health Organization said Pakistan should increase its testing to 50,000 daily, while urging the government to tighten lockdowns.

The decline in the daily testing numbers in the past week have been accompanied by lower daily infection numbers as a result.

Pakistan had been seeing increasingly high daily infection statistics, as WHO and medical professionals pleaded with the government to restrict movement. Prime Minister Imran Khan has resisted, saying the country’s fragile economy would collapse, hurting the poorest.

Pakistan has recorded 192,970 infections.

The health care system has a shortage of critical care beds, and hospitals have begun turning away patients. The government has warned that without precautions like wearing masks in public, the infection rate could soar to 1.2 million by August.

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