KARACHI: The Covid-19 pandemic has killed another Pakistani while infected 23 more during the last 24 hours, says National Institute of Health (NIH) on Friday morning.
According to the NIH data, the death toll in the country went up to 30,657 whereas the number of total infections now rose to 1,580,654 after adding the fresh 23 cases.
During the last 24 hours (Thursday), 2,543 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio dropped to 0.90%. The number of patients in critical care stood at nine.
The latest subvariant that causes Covid-19 is spreading rapidly, but the World Health Organization considers it to be no more dangerous than the other variations of the novel coronavirus now in circulation.
A subvariant of the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid-19, XBB 1.16 — also known as Arcturus — was initially detected in January 2023. It has spread most widely in India but has been found in 31 countries, including the United States.
The upward trend of cases warrants public health experts to remind the community on protective measures against the spread of disease,” Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, the director and founding dean of the University of California Irvine’s Program in Public Health.
WHO designated Arcturus a “variant of interest” but not a “variant of concern.” The latter “would represent a major shift from previous strains,” said Dr Brian Labus, an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Public Health.
