Islamabad, May 17 (IANS): The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan has risen to 40,151 with 873 deaths, according to the country's Health Ministry on Sunday.

A total of 1,352 new cases and 39 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying in its latest update.

Overall, 27,937 patients are under treatment in different hospitals while 11,341 have recovered completely, which is 28.2 per cent of the total confirmed cases.

Sindh province is the worst affected region with 15,590 cases, followed by Punjab province with 14,584 cases.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province stands third with 5,847 cases with 305 deaths.

At least 2,544 cases have been reported in Balochistan province, 947 in the capital city Islamabad, and 527 in north Gilgit-Baltistan region.

The Pakistani government started to ease the lockdown from May 9, aiming at mitigating the influence of the COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdown on the labour class and the poor in the country.

The reopened industries and the Pakistani people have been asked to strictly follow the standard operating procedures formed by the government to avoid the spread of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has announced to extend the suspension of international flight operations till May 31 while resuming domestic flight operations partially.