Islamabad, Jul 9 (IANS): The Pakistan government has imposed a smart lockdown in 30 cities across the country in an effort to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Prime Minister's Office.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired a meeting to review the current COVID-19 situation and policies to contain it, Xinhua news agency reported

At the meeting, he was briefed that the smart lockdown was proving very useful to bring down the number of new cases, a statement released by the Office said.

he meeting discussed how strict lockdowns had to be lifted by keeping in view the economic condition of the country and how the government's policy to impose smart lockdown is proving helpful.

Khan was also briefed by Health Ministry officials that with a decline in new cases, the excessive load on the hospitals has been controlled due to which healthcare system saw an improvement.

"Fifteen-hundred beds have been provided to hospitals for critical COVID-19 patients and in the coming days, 1,000 more beds will be provided to further facilitate the infected patients," the statement added.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has risen to 237,489 in Pakistan with 4,922 fatalities while 140,965 people have recovered from the disease across the country, according to the data released by the Ministry.