COVID-19 positive ratio increases to 4.5%, in major cities: NCOC 

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) has warned that the virus test positivity ratio is “rapidly increasing” in major urban centres of the country.

In its daily meeting convened in Islamabad on Monday, the NCOC was informed that the overall nationwide COVID-19 test positivity ratio is 4.5 %. Positivity ratio in major cities increasing rapidly, it added.

According to the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), the overall positivity rate stands at 4.5% with Hyderabad reporting the highest at 16.59%. Multan recorded 15.97%, Gilgit 15.38, Muzafarabad 14.12 % , Mirpur 11.11% , Peshawar 9.69%, Quetta 8.03%, Islamabad 7.48 %, Karachi 7.12% , Lahore 5.37 % and Rawalpindi reported 4.63% positivity rate.

The NCOC discussed at length the uptick in the COVID-19 positivity ratio and the recent enforcement measures put in place following the meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC).

The provincial chief secretaries updated the forum on the administrative measures on the fresh guidelines in the cities with high positivity ratio in their respective provinces.

They updated the meeting particularly the administrative measures and enforcement efforts regarding face mask-wearing and arrangements for outdoor weddings modalities to ensure fresh health guidelines.

The forum was informed that currently, 4,136 micro-small lockdowns are in place across Pakistan. The Test-Trace-Quarantine (TTQ) strategy is being used for control and prevention of Covid-19 spread. The fresh health guidelines will remain in force in 16 major cities until Jan 31, 2021.

The NCOC was apprised that 2,811 “oxygenated beds” were included to ramp up capacity of state-run hospitals and over 13,000 oxygen cylinders were issued to the federating units.

The forum appreciated the efforts of the provincial governments for taking prompt and necessary measures in line with the health guidelines for public safety and wellbeing.

The deadly virus claimed nine lives during the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide death toll to 6,976. Of them, 2,684 died in Sindh; 2,408 in Punjab; 1,288 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; 241 in Islamabad Capital Territory; 154 in Balochistan; 93 in Gilgit-Baltistan; and 109 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.