Pakistan recorded the least number of Covid-related deaths per million people in South Asia, tweeted head of the NCOC, Asad Umar on Saturday.

The federal minister said Pakistan recorded 102 people per million deaths due to Covid-19 while neighboring nations' numbers were much higher.

The figures he listed were: Iran: 1,037, Nepal: 326, India: 301, Sri Lanka: 186, Afghanistan: 160 and Bangladesh: 113.

Umar put this down to "Timely decisions, hard work, cooperation of people, and blessings of Allah but said the threat was not over, advising people to vaccinate.

Covid statistics

NCOC released its daily data on Saturday showing that 32 people had died in the last 24 hours. They said Pakistan conducted 37,636 tests of which 1,841 tested positive for coronavirus.

Pakistan's positivity rate was down to 4.89% from 5.65% a day before.

NCOC also tweeted vaccine statistics so far:

Delta variant

Umar's tweet comes against a backdrop of a surge in Covid cases which many analysts are calling Pakistan's fourth wave. The Delta variant is spreading, especially in Sindh, which on Friday said it was reapplying restrictions from Monday like a ban on schools, indoor & outdoor dining and shutting markets at 6pm.

Sindh recorded a positivity rate of 10%.