ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), the nerve center to synergize and articulate a unified national effort against COVID-19, reported today that at least 75 Pakistanis succumbed to the coronavirus-related causes in the past 24 hours.

According to the latest statistics, a total of 62,706 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours in Pakistan. Out of these 2,726 returned positive. It meant that the Covid positivity rate remained 4.34%, the lowest in several weeks.

It must be noted that the daily statistics of the past couple of weeks indicate that Pakistan has started to successfully contain the spread of lethal flu bug. The significant dip in the positivity rate is proof of that. According to health experts, the combined effect of lockdown restrictions and the amping up of the vaccination drive could be the reason behind this.

• The number of active novel coronavirus cases in the country has reached around 62,000.

Yesterday's tally of new cases takes the total tally to 911,302. While at least 20,540 people have been reported to die from COVID-19 so far. It must be noted that these are very conservative figures owing to a multitude of reasons and the actual number of cases and deaths are estimated to be much bigger in the country.