ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reached to a coronavirus positivity rate of 4.34 percent – the lowest since March 6 – as the country sees a steady decline in coronavirus cases amid the deadly third wave of the pandemic.
On March 6, the country had recorded a positivity rate of 4.2 percent.
According to the official figures provided by the National Command and Operation Centre, the total cases of the virus now stand at 911,302 with 831,744 recoveries so far.
In the last 24 hours, 62,706 tests were conducted for coronavirus out of which 2,726 returned positive.
At least 75 more people lost their lives to coronavirus in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death tally to 20,540 across the country.
The number of active cases stands at 59,018.
Although coronavirus cases are decreasing across the country, Sindh is reporting a spike in infections, resulting in stringent restrictions imposed by the authorities across the province.
In a provincial breakdown, Sindh has reported 313,059 cases so far, Punjab 337,073, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 131,027, Islamabad 80,779, Balochistan 24,823, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 19,008, and Gilgit Baltistan 5,533.
Moreover on Thursday, Pakistan opened registrations for citizens aged 19 and above for the coronavirus vaccination.
NCOC Chief Asad Umar, a day earlier, had tweeted about the government’s move to open registration for the 19 and above age group.
Umar had said that registration will be open for the entire national population, which is approved by health experts for the vaccine.
On the other hand, a meeting of the Sindh Corona Task Force on Thursday decided to keep the restrictions unchanged to control the coronavirus cases in the province.
Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, presiding over the session, said that the strict measures have helped in decreasing the rate of the positive cases in Sindh this week. “The people’s cooperation if continued, it will help to overcome the spread of the virus soon,” he hoped.
“The province conducted 22,043 tests yesterday and 1293 positive cases were detected,” the session was informed in a briefing on the coronavirus situation in Sindh.
“Overall ratio of coronavirus positive cases in the province remained 5.9 percent,” the meeting was told.
“The worrisome matter is 24 deaths by coronavirus in the province in 24 hours,” the chief minister said.
“Positivity ratio of the tests in Karachi has been 8.34 percent, which was 12.86 percent last week,” he said. “The ratio of positive cases in Hyderabad has also dropped from past week’s 11 percent to 4.42 percent this week,” he added.
“The ratio of coronavirus positive tests in other districts of Sindh remained 3.3 percent,” he added.
The chief minister appealed for more cooperation and advised the people to get vaccinated to overcome the virus situation in the province.
