Pakistan records less than 3,000 Covid-19 cases for first time since March

As the country goes under strict lockdown ahead of Eid ul Fitr, Pakistan has recorded 2,869 new infections in a single day on Wednesday, which is the first time in almost two months that Pakistan reported less than 3,000 coronavirus cases.

Last time, Pakistan reported less than 3,000 cases on March 16 when the virus was detected in 2,351 samples.

The emergence of new cases has taken the caseload to 867,426 as the country reported fewer cases of the viral infection compared to a few weeks ago.

The positivity rate in Pakistan stands at 7.42% today with   76,536 active cases and 771,692 recoveries reported country-wide.

Among all provinces, Punjab is the worst-affected with 322,11 cases. Sindh comes in second with 294,251 cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported 125,392 cases, Islamabad 78,560 cases, Balochistan 23,655 cases, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 18,056 cases, and Gilgit Baltistan 5,407 cases.

Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, in a series of tweets, had earlier pointed out the death rate among people under the age of 40 years has risen during the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Pakistan.

Earlier, it was 1% but has risen to 1.8%.

Moreover, the minister had stressed that it is important that the vaccination is concentrated on the most vulnerable segments of the society.

He had said that the risk of mortality due to COVID-19 rises sharply with age.

"In Pakistan, the case fatality rate based on cumulative data this strong linkage in our country also reason why we are opening vaccination based on age in descending order is due to finite availability of vaccines globally, as well as vaccination capacity in the country," the minister had underscored.

He had then mentioned that both supplies of vaccines and vaccination capacity are continuously increasing with concerted efforts.