98 more Pakistanis test positive for novel coronavirus
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reported no death in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has risen to 1,526,666.
The nationwide tally of fatalities stands at 30,361 on Sunday.
According to the latest figures by the National Institute of Health (NIH), at least 98 persons were tested positive for COVID-19 across the country in the past 24 hours.
Pakistan has conducted 22,525 tests in the past 24 hours out of which 98 persons were tested positive for the disease. The COVID Positivity Ratio was recorded at 0.43 percent.
Last week, India’s first case of Coronavirus variant XE was reported in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had said in a media release. One case of the Kappa variant has also been detected. The patients with the new variants of the virus don’t have any severe symptoms so far.
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The new mutant may be more transmissible than any strain of Covid-19, the World Health Organisation had said last week.
Official sources from the union health ministry, however, disagreed, saying the present evidence does not suggest that it is XE variant.
“FASTQ files in respect of the sample, which is being said to be XE variant, were analysed in detail by genomic experts of INSACOG who have inferred that genomic constitution of this variant does not correlate with genomic picture of XE variant,” an official said.
