MM News

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has recorded 52 more deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 13,128 from the disease.

According to the latest statistics of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the coronavirus has claimed 52 more lives while 1,579 new infections were reported during the day. There are 17,117 active cases in the country. In the past 24 hours, as many as 1,527 patients have recovered from the virus in a day and 1,551 patients are still in critical condition.

The total number of infections now stands at 587,014. A total of 37,998 tests were conducted across the country during this period. Overall 556,769 people have recovered from the deadly disease so far while 9,135,393 samples have been tested thus far.

The number of cases have been gradually rising as the restrictions have been lifted. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has postponed the sixth edition of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) after multiple positive Covid-19 cases were reported

Seven players and one support staff official had tested positive for the virus raised question over the bio-secure bubble and reservations from foreign players. Quetta Gladiators’ Tom Banton and Islamabad United’s Fawad Ahmed and Lewis Gregory were among the players who tested positive.

Pakistan is expected to receive the second batch of 500,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine soo. Last month, China had donated the first tranche of 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm jab to Pakistan.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced China will again be gifting Pakistan a batch of 500,000 doses of the vaccine which will be used for healthcare workers and senior citizens.

Meanwhile, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan’s (DRAP) has approved two coronavirus vaccines for people above 60 years of age.The body has approved China’s Sinopharm and Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines for inoculations, while the former was already being used to vaccinate frontline health workers.

Pakistan will be among the biggest recipients of free COVID-19 vaccines before June more than 10 million doses the COVAX scheme had announced.