ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's top anti-coronavirus official warned on Friday that a fourth wave of the COVID-19 cases could hit the country in July in the absence of strong adherence to precautionary measures.
Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who is also the chief of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the top body to combat the pandemic, said the NCOC has reviewed the "artificial intelligence based disease modeling analysis."
"In the absence of strong SoP enforcement and continued strong vaccination program, the 4th wave could emerge in Pakistan in July," he tweeted, urging the people to "adhere to SoP's and get vaccinated as soon as possible."
The warning came as Pakistan contained the third wave of the pandemic that hit the country early March and peaked after mid-April.
The country recorded 1,052 new cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the number of confirmed cases to 952,907, while 44 patients died in the same period, pushing the COVID-19 toll to 22,152, the Ministry of National Health Services reported.
So far, more than 14.32 million doses of vaccines have been administered in the country, as the country has planned to inoculate around 70 million people by the end of the year.