Another 498 people were diagnosed with the coronavirus during the past 24 hours (Thursday) in Pakistan, shows the latest figures released by National Command and Operation Centre on Friday.

It means a total of 297,512 people have so far been diagnosed with the virus since the outbreak of the pandemic in February.

Meanwhile, the deadly virus claimed seven more lives during the same period, raising the overall toll to 6,328 in the country. Five of these coronavirus patients died in Sindh with one each in Punjab and Azad Kashmir. 

Pakistan is among those countries where not only the number of deaths has been reduced but the rate of infection is also controlled to a remarkable extent.

As far as the region-wise distribution of the coronavirus cases is concerned, Sindh tops the list after officially reporting 130,041 infections. 

The similar figures for other provinces/regions are: Punjab 97,044, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 36,414, Islamabad 15,714, Balochistan 13,045, Gilgit-Baltistan 2,948 and Azad Kashmir 2,306.

On the other hand, another 23,218 people were tested for the virus during the past 24 hours as part of the ongoing efforts to detect, trace, isolate and contain the coronavirus spread.

Meanwhile, the number of active cases in the country currently stands at 8,909 after 282,268 coronavirus patients fully recovered from the infection. It means the number of closed cases [deaths + recoveries] has reached 288,253.

Out of these active cases, only 1,050 are currently in hospitals as the remaining patients have isolated at their homes or other places. 

Moreover, 90 of the hospitalised coronavirus patients are on ventilators while being treated in the intensive care units.