Balochistan government spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani has said that the recovery rate in the province, which had decreased to 13 per cent over the last few weeks, has increased to 29pc recently.

He said that another "good news" is that the death rate has also decreased to one per cent.

He said, however, that people had brought the virus "to their homes by being careless". He added that 21pc of virus patients in the province are women.

"At least 242 children under the age of 10 have contracted the virus even though they do not go to bazaars and their schools are closed. The age group between 21-40 constitutes 44pc of the total cases which shows they are not taking this seriously."

He appealed to the people to follow standard operating procedures otherwise the government would be forced to impose a "strict lockdown" to curb the spread of the virus.