KARACHI: The alarm bells have started ringing as Karachi recorded a 19.65% COVID-19 positivity rate during the past 24 hours, making it the highest in the country.
It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s positivity rate stands at 3.19% as of Saturday.
As per the details, 1252 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours in the port city out of which 246 people returned positive taking the positivity ratio to 19.65%.
Following Karachi, the second-highest number of cases was recorded in Islamabad where the positivity was 4.04%. The capital city reported 50 new COVID-19 infections after 1,237 diagnostic tests were conducted during the same period. While, Hyderabad reported 11% positivity rate during the same period.
Meanwhile, the weekly positivity ratio of COVID-19 cases in Sindh was 4.51% while the rate in Karachi was 13.54%.
In addition to this, three people succumbed to COVID-19 during the current month.
In Sindh, the province’s positivity rate rose to 8.4% after 13,336 diagnostic tests were conducted during the last 24 hours. The province reported 280 fresh COVID-19 infections over the period.
A day earlier, the Sindh Health Department issued an advisory to the commissioners of Karachi and Hyderabad, directing them to ensure the implementation of COVID-19 guidelines amid a sharp rise in new infections.
The letter referred to a meeting chaired by the Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to review the COVID-19 situation and stated that the increase in the number of cases can be partially attributed to BA4/BA5 Omicron sub-variants that have been recently reported in the country.
The health authorities directed the district administration to ensure the following standard operating procedures (SOPs):
The development comes as the two cities continue to report high positivity ratios which the experts have linked with increased air travel, waning of vaccine efficacy and non-implementation of SOPs.