Islamabad, May 8 (IANS): Pakistan's COVID-19 death toll has registered an over 100 per cent increase over the past 10 days, while the number of cases reported by each province were also rising, data has revealed.

Since the disease emerged in the country on February 26, the highest number of deaths reported in Pakistan emerged on Thursday, with 48 fatalities being reported taking the overall toll to 593, data collected by Dawn news revealed.

What started out as a single digit rise in the number of deaths during March, increased to double digits during the month of April.

From April 28 to May 7, 299 coronavirus deaths have been reported in the country; these account for more than 50.4 per cent of the total number of deaths.

Despite this worrying trend, the federal government announced on Thursday that the lockdown measures imposed to curb the spread of the disease will be eased, starting Saturday.

Moreover, markets will also be allowed to open for five days a week.

But while the provinces move towards easing the lockdown, the number of cases reported on a daily basis were also increasing with the overall tally currently at 24,954.

From April 27 to May 6, 10,365 cases have been reported in the country, nearly one third of the total number of cases, according to the Dawn new data.

The largest daily increase in the total number of cases was on May 6, as the tally rose by an astonishing 1,430.

Health experts in the country have repeatedly warned that the virus was expected to peak in the country during the month of May.

Speaking to Dawn news, Sunil Dodani, head of the infectious diseases department at Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) had said: "There has been an increase in the number of positive cases. More patients are now (also) reporting with severe illness. This pattern suggests that the next two to three weeks are crucial when the epidemic peaks."