Pakistan’s COVID-19 tally crosses 1.2mn mark

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s tally for the novel coronavirus cases crossed 1.2 million mark as 3,480 new infections were reported during the past 24 hours, National Command and Operation Centre's data showed Saturday morning.

According to the latest figures of NCOC, the country total caseload reached 1,201,367 after 3,480 more cases emerged in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 claimed 82 more lives during the same period, taking the nationwide death tally from the virus to 26,662.

As many as 3,480 people tested positive for the virus after 63,181 COVID-19 tests were taken, according to the NCOC's data.

This brings the positivity rate to 5.50%, which is the first time in over 20 days that the country has reported a positivity rate less than 6%. Since August 24, Pakistan's positivity rate has been under 7% on 17 out of 19 days.

The daily case count, however, has mostly been hovering between the 3,000-4,000 range for close to a month now.

In addition to this, 1,082,988 people have recovered from the virus so far and the number of active cases is 91,717.

COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Pakistan, with 3,758 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 64% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on June 17.

Pakistan has administered at least 66,456,245 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 15.3% of the country’s population.

During the last week reported, Pakistan averaged about 1,136,823 doses administered each day. At that rate, it will take a further 39 days to administer enough doses for another 10% of the population.