Pakistan reported 7,586 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Sunday as the Omicron driven fifth wave of the pandemic continues to get worse, official figures showed Sunday morning.
Pakistan registered its highest number of daily COVID-19 cases – 7,678 – on Friday since the pandemic started in 2020, the National Command and Operation Centre’s (NCOC) statistics had showed.
According to the NCOC, a total of 58,334 tests were conducted in the country during the last 24 hours, of which 7,586 came back positive, pushing the nationwide tally of the virus cases to 1,367,605. The country’s positivity rate now stands at a record high of 13%. Meanwhile, 20 more patients succumbed to the virus during the same period, taking the death toll to 29,097.
In addition to this, the country’s active coronavirus cases surged to 70,263, making it the highest in over four months. Pakistan last reported 65,725 active cases on September 16, 2021. A day earlier, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had revised COVID-19 protocols for mosques and announced that only fully vaccinated people will be allowed to pray inside the places of worship. The body leading Pakistan’s COVID-19 response also announced on Friday that all schools with a high COVID-19 positivity ratio would remain closed for one week across the country.
On January 21, the NCOC had decided to shut down all schools with a high COVID-19 positivity ratio for one week across the country to curb the new variant, Omicron.
A notification issued by the NCOC had said that all the educational institutions, premises, sections, specific classes with high positivity will be closed for one week.
“Provincial administration, in consultation with district health, education authorities, and school administrations, is to set a threshold of cases for deciding such closures,” the notification had added.
The NCOC had added that COVID testing in educational institutes was carried out in major Omicron-hit cities to ascertain disease spread among students and ensure accurate disease mapping.
On the international front, India reported over 300,000 new COVID-19 infections for the fourth straight day even though the caseload over the last 24 hours was slightly lower than a day before, data released by the government on Sunday showed.
India reported 333,533 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours with 525 dead, according to the figures released by the government. India’s total death toll due to COVID-19 now stands at 489,409, the health ministry said. On Saturday, India had reported 337,704 new cases of COVID-19 and 488 dead. Italy reported 171,263 Covid-19 related cases, against 179,106 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of one-day deaths fell to 333 from 373. Italy has registered 143,296 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth highest in the world. The country has reported 9.8 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 19,442 on Saturday, down from 19,485 a day earlier.
