Pakistan has posted 571 more coronavirus infections and six deaths during the last 24 hours (Friday), showed the figures released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday morning.

As per the latest NCOC data, after the addition of six new deaths, the overall toll has now surged to 30,304 whereas the number of total infections now stood at 1,518,083 after adding the fresh 571 cases.

During the last 24 hours (Friday), 36,885 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio stood at 1.54 percent. The number of patients in critical care was 641.

https://twitter.com/OfficialNcoc/status/1502458240667430913

During the last 24 hours (Friday), as many as 525 patients have recovered from the virus whereas the total recoveries stood at 1,469,930. As of Saturday, the total count of active cases in the country was recorded at 17,849.

As many as 571,548 coronavirus cases have so far been confirmed in Sindh, 503,590 in Punjab, 217,936 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 134,797 in Islamabad, 35,429 in Balochistan, 43,163 in Azad Kashmir and 11,620 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Moreover, 13,536 individuals have lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab so far, 8,091 in Sindh, 6,299 in KP, 1,020 in Islamabad, 790 in Azad Kashmir, 377 in Balochistan and 191 in Gilgit Baltistan.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS

Here are the global developments in the coronavirus crisis:

- China locks down nine million -

The northeastern Chinese city of Changchun and its nine million people are locked down as the country records the worst spike in new cases in two years. 

Only one person from every household will be allowed out every two days to buy "daily necessities", officials in Changchun said. 

- Shanghai shuts schools -

Economic hub Shanghai shuts its schools, with other cities using targeted lockdowns and mass testing to contain the outbreak driven by the highly-contagious Omicron variant.

- Beijing brings in rapid tests -

Beijing says it will introduce rapid antigen tests for the first time. 

- Hong Kong care homes hit -

The virus is tearing through Hong Kong's care homes, with some 60 percent of the nearly 3,000 virus deaths there in the last two months occurring in the facilities. 

- WHO: Nations didn't take notice -

Exactly two years after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, it says it was frustrated that countries didn't sit up when it sounded the alarm six weeks earlier.

- US cracks down on Covid fraud -

The US Justice Department appoints a special prosecutor to crack down on pandemic fraud, which is estimated to have cost Washington more than $8 billion (7.3 billion euros).

- EU airlines want end to restrictions -

European airlines and airports call for an end to pandemic measures for flights in the bloc as most countries begin to relax mask and vaccine requirements.

- Unjabbed US air crews go back to work -

America's United Airlines says it will allow its unvaccinated employees who had an exemption from a jab to return to work.

- Mainz game off -

An outbreak of 20 cases at the German club Mainz leads to their second consecutive Bundesliga game being postponed.

- Six million dead -

Coronavirus has killed at least 6,026,306 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally based on official sources on Friday.

The US has recorded the most Covid deaths with 965,464, followed by Brazil on 654,086 and India with 515,714.

Taking into account excess mortality linked to Covid, the WHO estimates the true death toll could be two to three times higher.

With inputs from AFP.