Another 46 people lost their lives to the novel coronavirus in Pakistan whereas 1,644 fresh cases have been reported during the last 24 hours (Thursday), showed the figures released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday morning.

The death toll has climbed up to 11,560 with the addition of 46 new fatalities while the total number of confirmed cases in Pakistan now stood at 541,031 after adding 1,644 more infections.

During the past 24 hours (Thursday), as many as 2,167 patients have recovered from the virus in a day while the total count of recoveries now stood at 496,745. 

As of Friday, the total number of active cases in the country was 32,726 with the national positivity ratio was recorded at 3.78 percent.

As usual, Sindh remained at the top in terms of number of cases followed by Punjab and other regions.

As many as 244,340 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 156,404 in Punjab, 66,451 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 18,798 in Balochistan, 41,176 in Islamabad, 8,953 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 4,909 in Gilgit Baltistan.

Moreover, 4,681 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab, 3,969 in Sindh, 1,879 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 194 in Balochistan, 476 in Islamabad, 259 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 102 in Gilgit Baltistan.

At least 43,381 tests have been conducted in the last 24 hours while 7,848,316 samples have been tested so far.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

- WHO enter Wuhan -

A team of experts from the World Health Organization leave quarantine in Wuhan to begin a heavily scrutinised probe into the origins of the pandemic, after Washington urged a "robust and clear" investigation.

- Vaccines row -

German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls a high-level meeting next week with Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers, as tempers flare over the European Union's sluggish rollout of the shots.

- AstraZeneca for under 65s? -

Germany's vaccine commission says it can not recommend the use of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine for people over 65.

The UK-based company says the latest clinical trial data for its vaccine developed with Oxford University "support efficacy in the over 65 years age group".

- Vaccine gap -

The EU's medicines regulator recommends medics leave three weeks between doses of the Pfizer/BionTech coronavirus vaccine -- rather than at least three weeks.

Britain, the first country to authorise the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, has said it will leave a gap of up to 12 weeks between doses in order to vaccinate more people.

- SAfrican variant in US -

US officials report a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus first identified in South Africa has been detected for the first time on US soil, in South Carolina, among two adults with no travel history and no connection to each other.

- US economy shrinks -

The United States economy shrunk by 3.5 percent last year, its worst contraction since 1946, as the Covid-19 pandemic shut down large sectors of business and daily life.

- More doses for Africa -

The African Union has secured an additional 400 million doses of vaccines for its members.

- Vietnam cluster -

Vietnam records its first outbreak in almost two months, with more than 80 new cases reported as authorities begin testing tens of thousands of people to contain the spread.

- Olympics event postponed - 

The first Tokyo Olympics test event of 2021, swimming's final qualifier for the virus-postponed Games, is postponed from March to May because of travel restrictions under Japan's coronavirus state of emergency.

- Cases top 100 million -

At least 2,176,000 people have died of coronavirus since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally from official sources.

More than 100,829,878 cases have been registered.

The US has suffered the highest toll with 429,202 deaths, followed by Brazil with 220,161 and India with 153,847.

The number of deaths globally is underestimated. 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.