The single-day coronavirus infections soared to over 4,000 as Pakistan reported another 63 deaths during the last 24 hours (Thursday), showed the figures released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday morning.

 With the addition of 4,368 new infections, highest numbers since July 3, 2020, the number of positive cases has now surged to 645,356 with the nationwide tally of fatalities jumping to 14,091, after adding the 63 new deaths.

As usual, Sindh remained the worst-hit province by the pandemic in terms of cases followed by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Most numbers of casualties have been reported in Punjab.

So far, 264,062 coronavirus cases have now been confirmed in Sindh, 207,765 in Punjab, 82,677 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19,427 in Balochistan, 54,347 in Islamabad, 12,095 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 4,983 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

As many as 6,142 individuals have lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab, 4,486 in Sindh, 2,260 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 205 in Balochistan, 555 in Islamabad, 340 in Azad Kashmir and 103 in Gilgit Baltistan.

Pakistan has so far conducted 9,976,791 coronavirus tests and 42,418 during the last 24 hours (Thursday) with 591,145 coronavirus patients have recovered in the country whereas 2,758 patients were in critical condition.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

Brazil surpasses 100,000 cases in a day

Brazil surpassed 100,000 new Covid-19 cases in one day on Thursday, adding another grim record in country where the pandemic has killed more than 300,000 people, the health ministry said. With the new cases, at least 12.3 million people are now known to have been infected with the coronavirus in Brazil. After the United States, it is the hardest-hit country anywhere in the world.

The toll has risen steadily since February, due to factors including people's abandoning social distancing norms and a new virus variant that emerged here and is believed to be more contagious than the original strain.

Another big problem is that the country's vaccination drive is moving slowly. The average of new daily infections over the past seven days is 77,050 -- twice what it was in January. On Tuesday the daily death toll surpassed 3,000 for the first time. Brazil's daily number of fatalities is now the highest in the world.

- EU crunch summit -
European Union leaders meet via videoconference seeking ways to end the bloc's vaccine struggles.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen releases figures showing Europe as the world's biggest exporter of Covid-19 vaccines, at around 77 million doses, rebuking UK accusations of vaccine "nationalism".

- 200 million doses -
US President Joe Biden launches a new goal of administering 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in the United States within his first 100 days in office, double his original pledge.

- Covax delay -
India is holding up export licences for Covid-19 vaccines destined for poor countries due to increased domestic demand as its own cases rise, says Covax facility co-leader Gavi.

- AstraZeneca doubts -
AstraZeneca says its vaccine is 76 rather than 79 percent effective in preventing symptomatic Covid, after US authorities raised concerns over its results.  

And the European Medicines Agency (EMA) says it will convene a group of experts to delve further into incidents of blood clotting in people who have received AstraZeneca's vaccine, despite declaring the jab "safe and effective".

- Iraq, Bosnia deliveries -
Iraq receives 336,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the Covax programme, in the second delivery for the Arab state worst hit by the coronavirus epidemic.

And in the struggling Balkans, Bosnia receives its first batch of vaccines, 23,400 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab. 

- Germany tightens rules -
Germany says travellers headed to the country by plane must show a negative Covid test before boarding.  

- Hungary high -
Hungary had the world's highest Covid-19 death rate compared to population over the last week, according to AFP data, at 15.7 per 100,000 inhabitants.

- Record Ukraine toll -
Ukraine registers a record number of coronavirus deaths for the third straight day, with 362 deaths, as new infections also reach a record high.

- Polish lockdown -
Poland will shut kindergartens, sports facilities and more non-essential shops from Saturday, the government says, as cases set a new daily record.

- 2.7 million dead -
At least 2,745,337 people have died of Covid-19 around the world since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally from official sources. 

The United States is the worst-affected country with 545,282 deaths, followed by Brazil with 300,685, Mexico with 199,627, India with 160,692 and Britain with 126,382.

With inputs from AFP.