Pakistan logs almost 900 new coronavirus cases, five deaths in 24 hours

ISLAMABAD: COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Pakistan amid the fifth wave of the pandemic, with the country reporting nearly 900 new infections of the virus during the past 24 hours, data from the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed on Wednesday.

As per the latest statistics, 898 people tested positive for the virus after 49,673 COVID-19 tests were taken across the country, bringing the positivity rate to 1.8%.

With the fresh cases, Pakistan's total confirmed case count now stands at 1,298,763.

During the same period, five more people succumbed to the virus, pushing the death toll from the virus to 28,950.

Meanwhile, 245 more people recovered from the disease, taking the overall recoveries to 1,257,600.

Don’t take Omicron lightly, warns Dr Faisal Sultan

A day earlier, amid a sharp rise in the COVID-19 cases across Pakistan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan warned people to not take Omicron “lightly” as hospitalisations will likely increase in the next one to two weeks.

The country’s top health official advised the public to follow the COVID-19 SOPs and get vaccinated at the earliest.

“It’s still a bit early to draw conclusions since it takes 1-2 weeks for hospitalisations to go up. Also, let us see how the virus behaves regarding virulence”, Dr Sultan had said when asked as to why hospitalisations were not going up in Karachi despite an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases due to the spread of the Omicron variant.