The increase in the daily count is on the rise continuously in Pakistan as another 1,708 people tested positive for the coronavirus virus during the past 24 hours (Tuesday) after the overall number increased to 348,184, while the United States far exceeded its previous daily record of new Covid-19 cases, adding 201,961 cases in 24 hours.

On the other hand, the death toll in Pakistan climbed to 7,021 as a result of 21 coronavirus patients dying during the same period, showed the figures released by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday morning.

Punjab again recorded most of these deaths where the virus claimed nine more lives. It was followed by three each in Sindh and Islamabad.

Meanwhile, the number of active coronavirus cases in the country also jumped to 21,098 which represents an increase of over 1,000. 

In this scenario, the number of those receiving treatment in hospitals has gone up to 1,237. Out of these hospitalised patients, 1,109 are in intensive care units due to their critical condition. Meanwhile, 197 of the critically ill patients have been placed on ventilators.

Earlier on Monday, Pakistan had reached another grim milestone as the coronavirus death toll topped 7,000 after another 23 people died in the country. Most of these latest deaths were in Punjab where the deadly virus claimed 12 lives. Meanwhile, the virus was found in 1,637 people during the same period.

With the addition of these latest cases, the region-wise distribution of the coronavirus cases as of Tuesday is given as: Sindh 151,352, Punjab 107,831 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 41,069, Islamabad 22,431, Balochistan 16,195, Azad Kashmir 4,911 and Gilgit-Baltistan 4,394.

It means Sindh again topped the list with over 550 new cases reported on Tuesday. Similarly, Punjab had more than 500 more infected people. The next most affected region in the country are Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Kashmir.

However, the number of people fully recovering from the infection has now increased to 320,065. Hence, a total of 327,086 cases have so far closed [deaths + number of people recovering from infection] in the country.

The day also saw 31,989 tests being administered in different parts of the country after which the overall number reached 4,773,496.

US records new high of Covid cases

The United States on Tuesday far exceeded its previous daily record of new Covid-19 cases, adding 201,961 cases in 24 hours, according to the tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The high number, partly due to data delayed over the weekend, took total cases in the US to 10,238,243, with a total of 239,588 deaths, as of 8:30 pm (0130 GMT).

In the 24-hour period, 1,535 deaths from Covid-19 were registered, a record in recent months as the US struggles to contain the spread of the pandemic.

For a week now, the number of new infections has trended at over 100,000 each day.

Coronavirus hospitalizations have also hit an all-time high, with more than 60,000 people hospitalized across the country, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

President Donald Trump, who has refused to concede defeat in the November 3 election, has repeatedly mocked people for wearing masks and claimed the virus would go away by itself.

But his victorious opponent Joe Biden has vowed to take a more proactive approach, telling the nation this week that face coverings are the single best way to get the virus under control.

US pharma giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced Monday that their vaccine candidate was 90 percent effective in preventing Covid-19, marking a major breakthrough in the search for a vaccine.

With inputs from AFP.