Another 39 people died and 2,783 more were infected by coronavirus during the last 24 hours (Friday) across Pakistan, showed the statistics released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday morning.

As per the latest NCOC figures, with the addition of 39 new deaths the toll has now soared to 22,760 whereas the total number of cases has now reached 986,668 after adding 2,783 new ones.

During the past 24 hours (Friday), as many as 1,000 patients have recovered from the virus whereas the total recoveries stood at 918,329. As of Saturday, the total count of active cases was recorded at 43,579 whereas the positivity ratio was recorded at 5.6 percent.

As many as 354,103 coronavirus cases have so far been confirmed in Sindh, 349,890 in Punjab, 140,293 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 84,399 in Islamabad, 28,884 in Balochistan, 21,811 in Azad Kashmir and 7,288 in Gilgit Baltistan.

Moreover, 10,865 individuals have so far lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab, 5,697 in Sindh, 4,380 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 787 in Islamabad, 598 in Azad Kashmir, 319 in Balochistan and 114 in Gilgit Baltistan.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

- Origins probe -
The World Health Organization says the second stage of an investigation into the origins of coronavirus should include further studies in China and lab "audits".

- Catalonia curfew -
Barcelona and other cities in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region will re-impose a night-time curfew starting this weekend to fight a surge in virus cases after the measure wins court approval.

- US doses for Africa -
The United States announces it is shipping 25 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to Africa, starting with Burkina Faso, Djibouti, and Ethiopia, to whom shipments will go out within days.

- Five-fold rise? -
The EU's disease agency predicts a sharp increase in cases, with nearly five times as many new infections by August 1.

- London scuppers French holidays -
English residents who visit France after a July 19 loosening of coronavirus restrictions will still be required to quarantine on returning home even if they are fully vaccinated, the government says.

- APEC meeting -
Pacific Rim leaders including US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping vow to ramp up the production and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines at unprecedented virtual talks on the pandemic.

- $3 bn from China -
China's President Xi Jinping promises another $3 billion in aid to developing countries to fight Covid-19.

- Eiffel Tower reopens -
The Eiffel Tower in Paris reopens to visitors for the first time in nine months following its longest closure since World War II.

- England opening 'murderous' -
Scientists say the UK government's plan to scrap day-to-day pandemic restrictions in England next week has no basis in science and amounts to premeditated murder for thousands of people.

- 'Pandemic of unvaccinated' -
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pleads with Covid vaccine holdouts to get their shots, saying "this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated".

- Philippines lockdown -
More than three million people in the Philippines go into lockdown as health officials warn of a possible surge in coronavirus infections following the first locally transmitted cases of the Delta variant.

- Fiji dismisses lockdown -
Fiji dismisses calls for a hard lockdown as Covid-19 cases reach record levels in the Pacific island nation, insisting a "no jab, no job" vaccination push will contain the virus.

- Four million dead -
The pandemic has killed at least 4,070,508 people since the virus first emerged in December 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data.

The United States is the worst-affected country with 608,400 deaths, followed by Brazil with 538,942, India with 412,531, Mexico with 235,740, and Peru with 194,845.

The WHO says up to three times more people have died directly or indirectly due to the pandemic than official figures suggest.

With inputs from AFP.