ISLAMABAD: Pakistan logged 6,808 new COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours, the second-highest daily case count since the coronavirus pandemic started in 2020, as the Omicron variant pushes infections across the country, data from National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed Thursday morning.
Pakistan last reported 6,825 daily coronavirus cases on June 13, 2020, making it the highest daily toll of infections.
As per the NCOC, a total of 58,943 tests were conducted across the country in the last 24 hours, of which 6808 came back positive, pushing the nationwide tally of the infections to 1,345,801.
The country’s positivity rate also jumped to a nine-month high as the infection rate was reported at 11.55% today morning. Meanwhile, five more patients died of the virus during the same period taking the overall death toll from the virus to 29,042. The condition of 918 patients was stated to be critical.
Major cities with positivity higher than 10%
Karachi — 41%
Muzaffarabad — 25%
Hyderabad — 17.27%
Islamabad — 15.37%
Lahore — 14.25%
Rawalpindi — 12.75%
Peshawar — 11.20%
The active cases, too, shot up and now stand at 51,094 from just 44,717 in the last 24 hours, official figures showed.
Karachi logs over 3,100 infections overnight
The fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting Karachi hard, as the port city reported 3,149 cases during the last 24 hours.
The positivity rate in the city was reported at 41%, making it the highest in the country, after 7670 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.