Pakistan and neighbouring India have registered an uptick in the number of their daily coronavirus infections and fatalities during the last 24 hours.

Pakistan has recorded another 679 coronavirus infections and seven deaths during the last 24 hours (Thursday), showed the figures released by the National Institute of Health Pakistan on Friday morning.

As per the NIH data, the death toll in the country now moved up to 30,462 after adding the seven fatalities while the number of total infections now stood at 1,549,073 after adding the fresh 679 cases.

During the last 24 hours (Thursday), 23,035 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio stood at 2.95 percent. The number of patients in critical care was recorded at 166.

https://twitter.com/NIH_Pakistan/status/1550301244182364160

The maximum positivity ratio was recorded in Lahore which was at 8.27 percent, followed by Islamabad at 6.50 percent, 5.88 percent in Muzaffarabad, 5.88 percent in Skardu, 4.60 percent in Gilgit, 3.52 percent in Faisalabad, 3.23 percent in Sargodha, 2.92 percent in Peshawar and 2.19 percent in Karachi.

During the last 24 hours (Thursday), another 908 patients have recovered from the Covid-19 in Pakistan and the number of total recoveries now stood at 1,508,843. As of Friday, the total count of active cases in the country was recorded at 9,768.

As many as 589,230 coronavirus cases have so far been confirmed in Sindh, 511,087 in Punjab, 220,710 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 137,039 in Islamabad, 35,706 in Balochistan, 43,491 in Azad Kashmir and 11,810 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

As many as 13,585 individuals have lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab so far, 8,161 in Sindh, 6,327 in KP, 1,027 in Islamabad, 793 in Azad Kashmir, 378 in Balochistan and 191 in Gilgit Baltistan.

India logs 21,880 new Covid cases, 60 deaths

India reported 21,880 fresh Covid-19 cases on Friday – almost as many cases as it did the day before (21,566) – pushing the national caseload to 43,847,065, the health ministry's dashboard showed.

Daily fatalities due to the viral disease stood at 60 – 15 more than Thursday's figure – taking the total number of Covid-19 related deaths to 525,930 or 1.20% of the overall caseload.

The data also showed that as many as 21,219 more people recovered from the virus, with the total number of recoveries rising to 43,171,653.

Meanwhile, the cumulative figure of active patients rose further to 149,482, an addition of 601 cases.

Recoveries and active patients account for 98.46% and 0.34% of the overall caseload.

On the vaccination front, more than 3.7 million doses were administered in the last 24 hours (Thursday) throughout India, which took the national vaccination coverage to more than 2.01 billion. The nationwide inoculation drive, which began on January 16 last year, crossed the historic 2 billion mark on July 17; the country took just 18 months to achieve the milestone.

On July 21, the Indian government directed nine states, which are experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases, to monitor and report district-wise cases of severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and influenza like illness (ILI) on a daily basis. The nine states are Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

Sore throat and cough top Covid symptoms
 
Top symptoms that could be Covid are a sore throat or a cough, according to data from 17,500 people who said they had tested positive for the virus recently.

Other common ones reported symptoms were headache and blocked nose.

A high temperature or fever and loss of smell or taste - ones which the experts list high up as likely Covid symptoms - were far less common.

A hoarse voice, sneezing, tiredness and muscle aches scored higher, reported BBC.

The top 20 Covid symptoms, in descending order, according to the data from the Zoe App study are:

·         Sore throat - reported by 58%

·         Headache - 49%

·         Blocked nose - 40%

·         Cough no phlegm - 40%

·         Runny nose - 40%

·         Cough with phlegm - 37%

·         Hoarse voice - 35%

·         Sneezing - 32%

·         Fatigue - 27%

·         Muscle pains/aches - 25%

·         Dizzy light-headed - 18%

·         Swollen neck glands - 15%

·         Eye soreness - 14%

·         Altered smell - 13%

·         Chest pain tightness - 13%

·         Fever - 13%

·         Chills or shivers - 12%

·         Shortness of breath - 11%

·         Earache - 11%

·         Loss of smell - 10%

It fits with what other researchers have been seeing.

The React-1 study has, each month, been sending 150,000 randomly selected people across England swab tests to do at home.

Findings from that show the symptoms people have with Covid have changed as the pandemic has evolved.

It could be down to how the virus has been changing or mutating over time, scientists believe.

Several Covid variants have emerged since the original Wuhan strain, with the latest one being Omicron.

The React-1 researchers, from Imperial College London, say loss of sense of smell and taste appears to be less common with this variant. Instead, people are reporting more cold and flu-like symptoms.

They looked at original Omicron - known as BA.1 and BA.2 - that was spreading in March 2022.

Since then, two fast-spreading new subvariants of Omicron called BA.4 and BA.5 have dominated, causing more new infections.

An estimated 2.7 million people in the UK, or one in 25, are thought to have Covid.

Prof Tim Spector, who runs the Zoe Health Study, said: "Covid is still rampant in the population. Even if people have had a past infection and are fully vaccinated, people are still catching it.

"Although we all want to make the most of the good weather, people will need to decide for themselves whether going to large events, working from the office or using busy public transport is worth the risk."