Coronavirus: Positivity rate crosses 3% as Omicron situation becomes grave

ISLAMABAD: Over 1,500 cases of coronavirus were reported in Pakistan for the first time in a single day since October 3 as the country continues to battle against the growing numbers of infections in the fifth wave of the pandemic, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data showed Sunday morning.

The latest statistics issued by the NCOC suggested that 1,572 new infections were detected in 49,658 diagnostic tests conducted across the county in the last 24 hours. With this, the positivity rate pushed to 3.16%.

Meanwhile, seven more people succumbed to the virus and 325 patients recuperated during the same period, taking the country's total death toll from coronavirus to 28,969, and number of recoveries to 1,258,65, respectively.

Karachi sees alarming surge in COVID-19 cases

A day earlier, the Sindh government had warned of resorting to ‘stringent measures’ if people continued to defy standard operating procedures (SOPs) in Karachi where the positivity rate of COVID-19 is continuously on the rise due to the spread of the Omicron variant.

“Positivity of COVID-19 cases is alarmingly on the rise in Karachi where it touched 11.72%. Fortunately, hospitalisation is not rising and currently only 18 patients are in the ICUs and HDUs," MPA Qasim said

He warned that if people continued to defy the SOPs and the burden on hospitals starts to rise, no other option would be left except to take "stringent measures".