Covid-19 kills 100 for fourth consecutive day

ISLAMABAD: The novel coronavirus has claimed 110 more lives in Pakistan during the past 24 hours, surging the overall death toll to 15,982, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday.
According to the NCOC, 5,364 new infections were reported during the aforementioned period and the positivity rate stood at 8.31 percent. The health facilities across the country conducted 64,481 coronavirus detection tests, taking the total number of Covid-19 tests to 11,007,252 since the first case was reported.
Amid a third wave of the pandemic, the country has reported 739,818 Covid-19 cases so far since the beginning of the pandemic last year. The number of active cases stands at 77,294 with the nationwide recoveries rising to 646,652.
The coronavirus situation has deteriorated further in Pakistan leading to stringent restrictions from the NCOC to curb the spread of the virus. Sindh currently leads the provinces and federating units with 270,310 cases, Punjab is second with 258,441 cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has reported 102,290 cases, Islamabad 68,066 cases, Balochistan 20,580 cases, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 14,978 cases, and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) 5,153 cases.
Around 10 per cent of coronavirus patients reported in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Rawalpindi district are children below the age of 10 years, health department officials confirmed.
Islamabad‘s District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Zaeem Zia said that at least 7,052 child patients, from newborn to 10 years of age, have been diagnosed with Covid-19. However, the DHO added that most of the children have recovered from the disease.
“The phenomenon is not new nor has there been any significant increase in the number of child cases in the recent past,” explained Dr Zia. He added that the 10 percent included children who have been diagnosed with the virus since the pandemic began.
The NCOC on Friday allowed two more medical centres in the city to administer coronavirus vaccines to the masses.
The NCOC has allowed the Indus Hospital and the Tabba Heart Institute to vaccinate those who qualify to be administered the coronavirus vaccine jab. There are now six vaccination centres in total in Karachi.
In Karachi, Ziauddin Hospital, the South City Hospital, OMI, Hashmanis Hospital, the Indus Hospital and the Tabba Heart Institute are providing the coronavirus vaccines to people.