LAHORE: Punjab’s daily coronavirus deaths rose to 14 in the last 24 hours, data from National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed on Saturday, bringing the province’s death toll to 5,337.
Cases have come down in recent months. The government portal keeping track of the outbreak in Pakistan reported 1,315 new infections of the coronavirus after conducting 39,086 tests, receiving back a transmission rate of 3.36 per cent.
The NCOC data showed the total number of active cases at 21,554.
In the last 24 hours, the portal recorded at least 33 more fatalities, taking the nationwide toll to 12,837.
Despite passing through two waves of the pandemic, Pakistan has yet to fully utilise its testing capacity of 59,981, with daily testing significantly below numbers proposed by global health experts.
Pakistan began its Covid-19 vaccine drive on February 2, with more than 400,000 doctors and frontline healthcare workers, teachers, and social workers receiving the shots in the first phase because they run the highest risk of exposure to the contagious disease.
In the second phase, starting March 1, the shots will be provided to citizens over the age of 65, who generally face a higher mortality risk from the virus.
