Coronavirus in Pakistan: Active cases exceed 80,000 for first time since Sept 13

ISLAMABAD: With 6,357 daily COVID-19 infections, Pakistan’s active COVID-19 cases crossed 80,000 mark for the first time since September 13 last year, data from the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed Tuesday morning.

Pakistan last reported 85,814 active COVID-19 cases on September 13.

As per the latest statistics  of the NCOC, a total of 49,595 tests were conducted across the country in the last 24 hours, of which 6,357 came back positive, pushing the nationwide tally of the confirmed cases to 1,381,152. The country’s positivity rate now stands at 12.81%.

Meanwhile, the country reported 82,396 active cases of the virus, showed the government’s data. 17 more patients succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide death toll to 29,122.

Cities with COVID infection rates above 10%

Karachi — 40.68%

Muzaffarabad — 29.41%

Peshawar — 23.89%

Hyderabad — 21.53%

Lahore — 15.83%

Rawalpindi — 12.50%

COVID cases may hit a peak in February

Medics have told Geo News that the continuous trend of rising cases due to the Omicron variant has moved up the numbers of patients on critical care.

Meanwhile, officials have said that Pakistan might experience its peak in the first or second week of February.

"More restrictions are expected this week to control this situation," officials said.

Overall situation in districts

As the fifth wave of the coronavirus surges through the country, due to the highly-transmissible Omicron variant, major cities in Pakistan have seen an uptick in test positive ratio, which is the percentage of tests that came back positive for COVID-19 out of the total conducted.

In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised governments that before reopening, rates of positivity should remain at 5% or below for at least 14 days. The Pakistan government has also directed curbs in cities which report positivity rates of over 10%.