Pakistan has reported steady numbers of everyday coronavirus infections and fatalities as the country registered 270 cases and three deaths during the last 24 hours (Saturday), showed the figures released by the National Institute of Health Pakistan on Sunday morning, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

As per the NIH data, the death toll in the country now surged to 30,574 after adding the three new deaths while the number of total infections now stood at 1,568,453 after adding the fresh 270 cases.

During the last 24 hours (Saturday), 16,871 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio stood at 1.60 percent. The number of patients in critical care was recorded at 118.

https://twitter.com/NIH_Pakistan/status/1563702356121976832

During the last 24 hours (Saturday), another 390 patients have recovered from the Covid-19 in Pakistan and the number of total recoveries now stood at 1,528,907. As of Sunday, the total count of active cases in the country was recorded at 8,972.

As many as 593,184 coronavirus cases have so far been confirmed in Sindh, 520,697 in Punjab, 223,380 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 139,010 in Islamabad, 35,938 in Balochistan, 44,228 in Azad Kashmir and 12,016 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

As many as 13,608 individuals have lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab so far, 8,227 in Sindh, 6,347 in KP, 1,030 in Islamabad, 793 in Azad Kashmir, 378 in Balochistan and 191 in Gilgit Baltistan.

India reports 9,436 fresh Covid infections

India reported 9,436 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, stated the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday.

With this, India’s active caseload now stands at 86,591 with active cases now constituting 0.19% of the country’s total positive cases.

As per the data shared by the ministry, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.62% with 9,999 patients having recovered in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative tally of recovered patients to 4,37,93,787.

While the weekly positivity rate in the country currently stands at 2.70 percent, the daily positivity rate shoots to 2.93 percent, as per the data.

Besides, the health ministry stated that the last 24 hours saw a total of 3,22,551 COVID-19 tests being conducted taking the cumulative tests to over 88.50 crores.

Under the National vaccination drive, 211.66 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far.

As per the data, COVID-19 vaccination for the age group 12-14 years was started on 16 March 2022. So far, more than 4.02 crore adolescents have been administered the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Similarly, the COVID-19 precaution dose administration for the age group 18-59 years also started from 10 April 2022 onwards.

More than 6.29 crore balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses are still available with the states.

US government’s Covid-19 website to suspend free at-home tests

The US government’s Covid-19 website will stop offering free at-home Covid-19 tests for Americans on September 2.

"Ordering through this programme will be suspended on Friday, September 2 because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests," the website says.

President Joe Biden committed in January to making 1 billion tests available to the public free of charge, including 500 million available through covidtests.gov. For months, the administration said not enough people were taking advantage of the free tests, but the supply has since run low.

The US, which has the highest COVID-19 death toll in the world, is averaging nearly 89,000 new COVID cases, 5,300 new hospitalizations and 392 deaths daily, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The number of coronavirus deaths reported worldwide fell by 15% in the past week while new infections dropped by 9%, according to the World Health Organization.

WHO said the predominant COVID-19 variant worldwide is omicron subvariant BA.5, which accounts for more than 70% of virus sequences shared with the world's biggest public viral database. Omicron variants account for 99% of all sequences reported in the last month.

Earlier this week, Pfizer asked US regulators to authorize its combination COVID-19 vaccine that adds protection against the newest omicron relatives, BA.4 and BA.5, a key step towards opening a fall booster campaign.

The Food and Drug Administration had ordered vaccine makers to tweak their shots to target BA.4 and BA.5, which are better than ever at dodging immunity from earlier vaccination or infection.