of covid-19 infections in the country. pakistan so far has experienced three different waves of covid-19. the nation's first wave of covid-19 began in late may 2020, peaked in mid-june when daily new confirmed case numbers and daily new death numbers reached high points, then ended in mid-july. the first wave was marked by a low death rate, and passed very suddenly as case and death rates began to drop very quickly after peaking. after the first wave, pakistan's covid-19 situation subsided daily new death numbers and testing positivity rates in the country stabilized at low levels. cases and deaths began rising again, though, in early november 2020, culminating in the country's second wave. this wave was low in its intensity, mainly affected the southern province of sindh, and peaked in mid-december 2020. the country's third wave began in mid-march 2021, when testing positivity rates, and daily new confirmed cases and deaths began to skyrocket. the third wave mainly affected the provinces of punjab and khyber pakhtunkhwa. this wave peaked in late april 2021, and since then, positivity rates, daily new case numbers, and daily new death numbers have been falling. pakistan's most populated province, punjab, has so far seen the highest raw number of confirmed cases (334,000) and deaths (9,770). sindh, the second-most populated province in the country, has seen the second-highest number of confirmed cases (308,000) and deaths (4,910), but was hit hardest by pakistan's first two waves of the virus, and still has higher proportions of confirmed cases than all of pakistan's other provinces. it also has the second-highest death rate, after khyber pakhtunkhwa, which is pakistan's third-most-populated province. while khyber pakhtunkhwa has the third-highest number of confirmed cases of covid-19 (129,000), it has faced an exceptionally high fatality rate of 3.03% which has caused it to have the highest death rate out of any province and the third-highest number of deaths (3,920). in the southwest of the country, the sparse and arid province of balochistan has seen the lowest confirmed case count (24,500) and the lowest death count (270) of all of pakistan's provinces and has also shown the lowest number of confirmed cases per capita, as well as the lowest number of deaths per capita. the fatality rate in balochistan is especially low, currently standing at 1.10%. islamabad capital territory, which is richer than any of pakistan's provinces, has confirmed 80,300 cases and has seen 745 deaths so far, giving it a higher number of deaths per capita and a higher number of confirmed cases per capita than any pakistani province, while also having the lowest fatality rate in the country. the country was put under a nationwide lockdown from 1 april and extended twice until 9 may. upon its end, the lockdown was eased in phases. after the first wave, the country has battled covid-19 by using "smart lockdowns" and enforcing sops. the distribution of covid-19 in pakistan is heavily concentrated in a few key areas. the city of karachi (as of 7 may 2021) has recorded about 189,000 confirmed cases, making up about 22% of all cases of covid-19 in pakistan. meanwhile, lahore, the country's second-largest city, has recorded (as of 5 september 2020) 170,000 cases of covid-19, making up about 19% of the country's cases. islamabad capital territory and peshawar district have recorded about 79,000 and 47,000 confirmed cases respectively as of the latest available data. karachi, lahore, islamabad, and peshawar account for about 485,000 cases, which make up over 55% of the country's total confirmed cases. regional response 15 march conference call on 13 march, india prime minister narendra modi called for a joint regional response to the pandemic through the regional organisation, saarc; the proposal was met with positive response. a conference call was attended by heads of governments of all member states, except pakistan which sent the special adviser to the prime minister, on 15 march. modi's proposal to setup an emergency fund was agreed upon. modi also proposed creating a common research platform to coordinate research within the south asia region, while afghan president ashraf ghani proposed creating a common framework for telemedicine. saarc covid-19 emergency fund on 15 march 2020, coinciding with the international consumer rights day the emergency fund was proposed by indian prime minister narendra modi during a video conference of saarc heads of government from new delhi as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic. the purpose of this fund is to tackle and mitigate the risks associated with the coronavirus pandemic in the south asian region. other member nations welcomed the decision of modi for the proposal of coronavirus emergency fund. india announced us$10 million as its initial contribution to support the initiative and modi stated that the contributions for the fund from member countries would be voluntary. as of 11 april 2020, the emergency fund had accumulated sum of us$21.8 million with the pool of contributions from seven member countries. bangladesh announced it would contribute us$1.5 million, nepal and afghanistan each announced that they would voluntarily contribute us$1 million. on 23 march, sri lanka announced it would contribute us$5 million which was the second most highest contribution from a member country besides india. maldives announced it would contribute us$200, 000 while bhutan announced it would contribute us$100, 000. on april 10, pakistan also announced a contribution of $3 million. medical response coordination the saarc disaster management centre later launched a website for information related to the pandemic in member countries, as proposed by modi in the conference call. a video conference was held among health professional of all countries at the director general of health services (dghs) level on 26 march, to discuss a framework for cooperation as agreed in the 15 march conference. a shared electronic platform for sharing of information, knowledge and expertise was proposed. censorship people in india, pakistan, bangladesh, and sri lanka have been arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the covid-19 pandemic. impact of mobility reduction on air quality aqi pm2.5 changes across saarc countries indicates a reduction of particle emission due to covid-19 containment measurement as well as a positive environmental outcome in the cities. the data has been smoothed using the locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (lowess) method. in light of the google covid-19 community mobility reports, apparently afghanistan has a base decrease of mobility and a lower mobility in residential from the base. as far as indoor activity, rate versatility expanded in all nations at a comparable level aside from afghanistan. bangladesh, india, nepal, pakistan, and sri lanka had a higher decrease in outdoor, open air versatility. notwithstanding, for bangladesh and pakistan, mobility in the parks didn't lessen that much (around 10-25%) contrasted with other saarc nations aside from afghanistan. likewise, in all classes, sri lanka has a reliably higher decrease in portability. the impact of mobility decrease was likewise seen noticeable in air-quality record (in view of particulate issue size 2.5 micrometers, otherwise called aqi pm2.5). aside from the bhutan and maldives, all nations in saarc have day by day records of pm2.5 (as announced in airnow.gov) which has been imagined in figure 4 from mid 2020 until may 10 for all urban areas for which the information is accessible in saarc. afghanistan, bangladesh, and sri lanka indicated an expansion of aqi pm2.5 esteem in mid 2020 that crested in mid february, and afterward reliably declined until may. in every single other nation, a consistent diminishing has been seen in these five months. since a huge extent of pm2.5 can be credited to traffic vehicle's gas and mechanical consuming of fills, this overall decrease of aqi information by implication shows an impact of lockdown in these nations.