Pakistan has recorded a spike in coronavirus deaths as 75 fatalities were reported during the last 24 hours (Tuesday) as the death toll from Covid-19 has now crossed 13,000 mark, showed figures of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) released on Wednesday morning.

As the number of fatalities has been hovering around 50 for past many days, it shot up during the last 24 hours (Tuesday) as 75 people lost their lives to coronavirus whereas 1,388 fresh cases were reported across Pakistan, taking the number of total confirmed cases to 583,916.

During the past 24 hours (Tuesday), 6,849 patients have recovered from the virus while the total recoveries stood at 554,225. The total count of active cases in Pakistan now stood at 16,648.

As many as 258,679 coronavirus cases have so far been confirmed in Sindh, 173,395 in Punjab, 72,801 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 44,690 in Islamabad, 19,076 in Balochistan, 10,319 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 4,956 in Gilgit Baltistan.

As many as 5,441 individuals have so far lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab, 4,372 in Sindh, 2,091 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 501 in Islamabad, 306 in Azad Kashmir, 200 in Balochistan and 102 in Gilgit Baltistan.

A total of 32,945 tests were conducted during the last 24 hours while 9,055,069 samples have been tested so far.

Global developments
These are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

- EU verdict on J&J -
The European Medicines Agency says that it is set to decide whether to authorise Johnson & Johnson's single-shot coronavirus vaccine for the 27-nation EU on March 11.

- Germany eyes loosening curbs -
German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to allow more socialising between households from next week as part of plans to gradually loosen virus curbs, a draft text yet to be agreed by regional premiers shows.

The premiers are due to hold talks with Merkel on Wednesday.

- Joining up with Israel -
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen will travel to Israel on Thursday to discuss a plan for common production of future vaccines, as they seek to ease dependence on the EU.

Kurz makes the announcement as he criticises the EU's medicine regulator for being "too slow" in approving vaccines.

- Sinopharm for Iraq -
Iraq gets 50,000 Sinopharm vaccines donated by China and launches a long-awaited vaccination campaign.

- Serbia donates to Bosnia -
Serbia donates 10,000 doses of vaccines to neighbouring Bosnia, which has yet to receive the jabs it was promised through the Covax scheme.

- N.Ireland easing plan -
Northern Ireland becomes the final UK nation to agree an unwinding of its coronavirus restrictions, with sports and leisure, travel and worshipping restrictions to be eased in stages, but without setting dates.

- Canadian economy plunges -
Canada's pandemic-hit economy contracted 5.4 percent in 2020, its worst plunge on record, despite a strong rebound in the final three months of the year, the national statistical agency says.

- 263 million doses -
More than 263 million doses of anti-Covid vaccines have been administered in at least 128 countries or territories, according to an AFP tally based on official sources on Tuesday at 1800 GMT.

- 2.5 million dead -
The virus has killed at least 2,539,505 people since it emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources.

The US is the worst-affected country with 514,657 deaths, followed by Brazil (255,720), Mexico (186,152), India (157,248) and Britain (122,953).

 

With inputs from AFP.