ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday reported over 500 COVID-19 new cases for the third consecutive days and eights deaths in the last 24 hours, according to data provided by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
According to the government’s official COVID portal, Pakistan recorded a total of 597 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, whereas 8 more fatalities were recorded.
Statistics 2 Jan 22:
Total Tests in Last 24 Hours: 45,585
Positive Cases: 594
Positivity %: 1.30%
Deaths :8
Patients on Critical Care: 637— NCOC (@OfficialNcoc) January 2, 2022
At present, 637 critical patients have been admitted to hospitals across the country, the coronavirus monitoring body said. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s COVID positivity rate has risen to 1.30 per cent.
Earlier positivity rate had remained less than 1pc for almost two months. Since Pakistan started releasing the data regarding positivity rate in March 2020, the rate has remained over 1pc. However, on November 8, 2021, the NCOC announced that for the first time positivity rate had dropped to less than 1pc.
Later, the positivity rate mostly remained less than 1pc and on December 25 the country’s positivity rate was reported at around 0.69pc. However, the data released by the NCOC on December 31 showed that the positivity was 1.08pc after a gap of almost two months.
A day earlier, the local government imposed a 15-day micro-smart lockdown in Karachi’s District East after the emergence of at least 12 cases of Omicron variant in the area.
According to a notification issued by the deputy commissioner’s office, the lockdown was imposed in Gulshan-e-Iqbal’s Block 7 area and other hotspots on the report of the district health officers.
After the imposition of the smart lockdown, there will be a ban on all sorts of public gatherings in the area, the notification said, adding that the government will strictly enforce the implementation of the SOPs.
“In order to reduce the transmission and spread of Covid-19, besides mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing interventions, it is also fundamental to ensure isolation, contact tracing and testing being the three pillars of TTT (TTQ) strategy of the government for the containment of Covid-19,” the notification added.
