The number of daily coronavirus infections has dropped to below the 2,000 mark ever since the latest Covid-19 wave fuelled by the Omicron variant hit Pakistan a couple of months ago.

According to the statistics released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday morning, Pakistan has registered 1,983 coronavirus cases and 26 deaths during the last 24 hours (Friday).

As per the latest NCOC data, after the addition of 26 new deaths, the overall toll has now surged to 29,976 whereas the number of total infections now stood at 1,498,676 after adding the fresh 1,983 cases.

During the last 24 hours (Friday), 47,780 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio stood at 4.15 percent. The number of patients in critical care was 1,439.

https://twitter.com/OfficialNcoc/status/1494847589128232965

During the last 24 hours (Friday), as many as 2,782 patients have recovered from the virus whereas the total recoveries stood at 1,399,000. As of Saturday, the total count of active cases in the country was recorded at 69,700.

As many as 563,314 coronavirus cases have so far been confirmed in Sindh, 498,322 in Punjab, 214,277 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 133,702 in Islamabad, 35,206 in Balochistan, 42,535 in Azad Kashmir and 11,320 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Moreover, 13,430 individuals have lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab so far, 8,020 in Sindh, 6,182 in KP, 1,002 in Islamabad, 780 in Azad Kashmir, 373 in Balochistan and 189 in Gilgit Baltistan.

 

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS

Here are the global developments in the coronavirus crisis:

- Canadian police move in -

Canadian police begin a massive operation to clear the trucker-led protests against Covid health rules clogging the capital for three weeks, with several arrests made.

- Vaccine row remains -

EU and African leaders do not reach a breakthrough at their Brussels summit over a dispute around Africa's calls for a temporary intellectual property waiver to allow the generic production of vaccines and treatments.

- Hong Kong to test whole population -

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says the city is planning to introduce mandatory testing for its entire population of more than 7.3 million, with its hospitals overwhelmed by spiralling cases.

- New leader postponed -

Hong Kong's government postpones plans to pick the city's new pro-Beijing leader as the financial hub struggles to tackle its worst-ever outbreak.

- G20's careful approach -

The Group of 20 biggest economies are committed to taking a careful approach to unwinding support introduced during the pandemic, the group's chair Indonesia says after a meeting of its finance chiefs.

- mRNA jabs for Africa -

The World Health Organization chooses six African countries --- Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia -- for mRNA vaccine production plants, in a push to ensure the continent can make its own jabs to fight Covid.

- Over 5.8 million dead -

Coronavirus has killed at least 5,860,577 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on Friday.

The US has recorded the most Covid deaths with 931,741, followed by Brazil with 641,902 and India 510,905.

Taking into account excess mortality linked to Covid-19, the WHO estimates the true death toll could be two to three times higher.

 

With inputs from AFP.