Islamabad, May 13 (IANS): Pakistan has reported a total of 34,337 COVID-19 cases, with 12,610 in Sindh, 5,021 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 2,158 in Balochistan, 475 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 759 in Islamabad, a health official said on Wednesday.

So far, the virus has claimed at least 737 lives, while at least 8,812 coronavirus patients have recovered in Pakistan.

The country, despite its close proximity with China, remained coronavirus-free until February 26 when a young man from Karachi tested positive after returning from Iran -- one of the worst-hit countries. After a brief hiatus following the first case, COVID-19 cases spiked as more pilgrims returning from Iran tested positive for the virus, the Express Tribune reported.

The COVID-19 respiratory illness caused by this mysterious contagion has so far infected more than 4.1 million people in 202 countries and territories of the world and over 285,000 of them have died and counting.

The novel coronavirus emerged in the central China city of Wuhan towards the end of last year and proliferated to almost the whole world within a couple of months. It's not the virulence or fatality, but the infectivity of the new virus -- also known as SARS-CoV-2 -- that has set off a global frenzy.