By Abdul Rasheed Azad

ISLAMABAD: With increasing cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19, the coronavirus positivity ratio in Pakistan has once again crossed one percent level as the country, on Friday, reported 515 Covid-19 positive cases after 47,856 tests were conducted across the country.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the nationwide Covid-19 positivity was recorded at 1.08 percent, which is the highest since November.

The country also recorded six Covid-19 deaths, taking the national death toll to 28,927 since the pandemic outbreak. Another 406 people have recovered from the coronavirus in Pakistan, taking the country’s total to 1,256,337.

The 515 new coronavirus reported cases in the past 24 hours is the highest number of cases since November 10 as the country had reported 637 cases on November 10. The countrywide breakdown of the last 24 hours is as follows:

Sindh reported 308 cases and four deaths, Punjab reported 115 cases, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) reported 36 cases and one death, Balochistan reported three cases and one death, and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) reported 53 cases.

Since the pandemic outbreak, Pakistan has reported 1,295,376 cases, of which, 1,256,337 have recovered while 10,122 Covid-19 patients are active.

According to the NCOC, 639 cases are in critical condition and admitted at various Covid-19 dedicated health facilities across the country.

The NCOC also announced that it has achieved its goal of fully vaccinating 70 million people against the coronavirus in 2021, a target it had announced in May this year.

The announcement was also shared by the NCOC Chairman, Asad Umar, who is also Federal Minister for Planning and Development, saying that he is “grateful for the tireless work of the NCOC team, the federal and provincial administrations, and the health teams”.

This story was first published in Business Recorder on Jan 1 2022