Pakistan gets US$1.5b IMF emergency cash

The International Monetary Fund has given Pakistan US$1.5 billion in emergency financing to help absorb some of the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Pakistan is spending billions in relief to mitigate the effect on its poorest citizens. The government has been handing out 12,000 rupees (roughly US$70) to more than 10 million families hit hardest by a monthlong lockdown designed to try to slow a steadily climbing infection rate.
Pakistan has started ramping up testing, with more than 6,000 tests conducted in the last 24 hours _ twice the 3,000 that had been carried out daily for much of the past month. The country has 7,025 confirmed cases including 135 deaths, an increase of 11 in the last 24 hours.-AP