KARACHI: Deputy Speaker of the Sindh Assembly Rehana Laghari has tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the latest top politician to contract the virus.
The deputy speaker underwent the COVID-19 test after experiencing mild symptoms, which turned out to be positive. Rehana Laghari was currently self-isolating at her residence.
Several Pakistani politicians including Sindh CM, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, ANP’s Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Sindh education minister Saeed Ghani, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, and Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari had tested positive for coronavirus, after which they went into self-isolation and recovered.
PTI Punjab Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Shaheen Raza was the first lawmaker in the country who died due to COVID-19 a few months ago.
PTI MPA Mian Jamsheduddin Kakakhel from Nowshera and PML-N MPA Shaukat Manzoor Cheema from Gujranwala also passed away in June after being on the ventilator for a few days.
Pakistan is currently experiencing a second wave of the virus and a report on Saturday showed that the overall positivity rate of novel coronavirus cases stands at 5.81 whereas, the number of critical patients is 2,264 in the country.
According to NCOC data, the national positivity rate is 5.8%. Karachi has the highest positivity rate in the country at 15.7% followed by Peshawar at 15.5 % and Mirpur is the third-highest with 9.2%.
Meanwhile, Sindh has a positivity rate of 8.1%, Punjab 4.7%, Balochistan 3.8% and KP 5.3%. Whereas, Islamabad’s positivity rate stands at 3.3%, Gilgit-Baltistan 1.4 percent and AJK at 8.5%.
In the last 24 hours, Sindh reported 953 new Covid-19 cases and 22 more fatalities. Karachi has so far confirmed five cases of the new UK COVID-19 variant in UK returnees.
