Pakistan saw a gradual decline in new coronavirus infections for the last few days as the deaths continued to hover around 50 in recent days.

Pakistan has reported 1,700 plus Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, over 1,800 on Tuesday and over 1,900 on Monday.

According to the latest figures released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday morning, at least 48 people lost their lives due to the novel coronavirus while 1,772 fresh cases have been reported during the last 24 hours (Tuesday).

The number of positive cases has surged to 524,783 while the nationwide death toll has jumped to 11,103.

As of Wednesday, the total count of active cases in the country stands at 35,163. At least 2,046 patients have recovered from the disease in a day (Tuesday) while the total number of recoveries stands at 478,517.

As usual Sindh remained at the top in terms of cases followed by Punjab and other regions. As many as 237,308 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 150,889 in Punjab, 64,078 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 40,304 in Islamabad, 18,640 in Balochistan, 8,672 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and 4,892 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

As many as 4,476 individuals have died due to the coronavirus in Punjab, 3,830 in Sindh, 1,799 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 460 in Islamabad, 245 in Azad Kashmir, 191 in Balochistan and 102 in Gilgit Baltistan.

Pakistan has so far conducted 7,481,688 coronavirus tests and 39,604 samples have been tested during the last 24 hours (Tuesday).

Global developments

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

- US deaths top 400,000 -

More than 400,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the United States since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday, the eve of the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden, who has made the fight against the coronavirus a priority of his first term.

- Germany's tighter curbs -

Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of Germany's 16 states are expected to extend and tighten a partial lockdown beyond January, as fears grow over more contagious virus strains.

- Travel bans -

As Donald Trump prepares to leave power, Biden's spokeswoman quickly dismisses the outgoing leader's announcement that a ban on travellers arriving from much of Europe and Brazil will be lifted.

"In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of Covid-19," tweets Biden's press secretary Jen Psaki.

- Record toll for Britain -

Britain registers a record high 1,610 daily deaths from coronavirus.

And one in eight people in England had been infected by December last year, up from nine percent in November, according to official antibody data.

- EU 70 percent goal -

The European Union aims to inoculate 70 percent of its adult population against the coronavirus before the end of August, European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas says.

- Record deaths in Portugal -  

Portugal registers a record 218 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, as Prime Minister Antonio Costa comes under fire after being forced to tighten the latest lockdown measures. 

And with nearly 70,000 new cases confirmed over the past week, it has become the country with the highest infection rate relative to the size of its population, according to an AFP tally.

- Tennis menace -

Two Australian Open tennis players have tested positive for the virus, taking the Grand Slam's cluster to seven as the competition faces a backlash from a wary public in host city Melbourne, which emerged from a four-month lockdown in October.

- Serbia uses Chinese jab -

Serbia launches a mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign, becoming the first European country to use the Chinese-made Sinopharm jab.

- Denmark targets homeless -

Denmark, currently among the quickest in the European Union in terms of jabs per capita, announces it will include homeless people among those given priority for Covid-19 vaccines.

- Austrian queue jumping -

Authorities in Austria say that they are looking into reports of alleged queue-jumping, including by several mayors, in the government's coronavirus vaccination programme.

- Two million plus dead -

At least 2,041,289 people have died of the virus since it first emerged in China in late 2019, according to a tally compiled by AFP on Tuesday based on official figures.

The US has suffered the highest death toll with 399,003 fatalities, followed by Brazil with 210,299 and India 152,556.

The number of deaths globally is broadly under-estimated. The toll is calculated from daily figures published by national health authorities and does not include later revisions by statistics agencies.

 

With inputs from AFP.