Covid claims another life in Pakistan
NIH data shows number of critical patients plunging to 17: Chinese city seeing half a million Covid cases a day
Pakistan has detected another 13 Covid-19 infections with one fatality during the last 24 hours (Friday), showed the statistics released by the National Institute of Health (NIH) on Saturday morning, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
According to the NIH data, the death toll in the country now rose to 30,636 whereas the number of total infections now climbed up to 1,575,665 after adding the fresh 13 cases.
During the last 24 hours (Friday), 4,403 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio settled at 0.37 percent. The number of patients in critical care was 17 down from previous day’s 25.
COVID-19 Statistics 24 December 2022
— NIH Pakistan (@NIH_Pakistan) December 24, 2022
Total Tests in Last 24 Hours: 4,403
Positive Cases: 13
Positivity %: 0.30%
Deaths: 01
Patients on Critical Care: 17
Chinese city seeing half a million Covid cases a day
Half a million people in a single Chinese city are being infected with Covid-19 every day, a senior health official has said, in a rare and quickly censored acknowledgement that the country's wave of infections is not being reflected in official statistics.
China this month has rapidly dismantled key pillars of its zero-Covid strategy, doing away with snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and travel curbs in a jarring reversal of its hallmark containment strategy.
Cities across the country have struggled to cope as surging infections have emptied pharmacy shelves, filled hospital wards and appeared to cause backlogs at crematoriums and funeral homes.
But the end of strict testing mandates has made caseloads virtually impossible to track, while authorities have narrowed the medical definition of a Covid death in a move experts have said will suppress the number of fatalities attributable to the virus.
A news outlet operated by the ruling Communist Party in Qingdao on Friday reported the municipal health chief as saying that the eastern city was seeing "between 490,000 and 530,000" new Covid cases a day.
The coastal city of around 10 million people was "in a period of rapid transmission ahead of an approaching peak", Bo Tao reportedly said, adding that the infection rate would accelerate by another 10 percent over the weekend.
The report was shared by several other news outlets but appeared to have been edited by Saturday morning to remove the case figures.
China's National Health Commission said Saturday that 4,103 new domestic infections were recorded nationwide the previous day, with no new deaths.
In Shandong, the province where Qingdao is located, authorities officially logged just 31 new domestic cases.
China's government keeps a tight leash on the country's media, with legions of online censors on hand to scrub out content deemed politically sensitive.
Most government-run publications have downplayed the severity of the country's exit wave, instead depicting the policy reversal as logical and controlled.
But some outlets have hinted at shortages of medicine and hospitals under strain, though estimates of actual case numbers remain rare.
The government of eastern Jiangxi province said in a Friday social media post that 80 percent of its population -- equivalent to around 36 million people -- would be infected by March.
More than 18,000 Covid patients had been admitted to major medical institutions in the province in the two weeks up to Thursday, including nearly 500 severe cases but no deaths, the statement said.
With inputs from AFP.