Pakistan sees uptick in daily COVID-19 cases as country continues battle against fifth wave

ISLAMABAD: With over 100,000 active COVID-19 cases, Pakistan recorded 6,047 new infections during the last 24 hours, data from the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed Wednesday morning.

As per the latest stats of the NCOC, the country reported a COVID-19 positivity rate under 10% for the second consecutive day. However, since early January, the country's active case bar has seen a constant uptick, taking the count from 15,192 on January 8 to 102,103 on February 2.

Pakistan’s daily case count, too, has seen a slight uptick in the last 24 hours as the number went up from 5,327 a day earlier to 6,047 after 61,190 diagnostic tests were conducted nationwide on February 1.

Meanwhile, the country’s positivity rate was recorded at 9.88%.

However, the new infections placed Pakistan's confirmed case count at 1,436,413, while the active case count clocked in at 102,103.

In addition to this, 29 more people succumbed to coronavirus, pushing the nationwide death toll to 29,330.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan wants the public to stop being lazy and get a booster shot if they haven't already, as Pakistan continues its battle against the Omicron-driven fifth COVID-19 wave.

He urged people to get their COVID-19 booster shots if six months had passed since they got their second vaccination dose.

"Scientific data has shown that people need an additional dose of the vaccine despite being fully vaccinated for protection against COVID-19 if six months and over have passed," Dr Sultan said, while addressing a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in Islamabad.

He said that earlier, the NCOC was only asking people to get the booster dose, but now it is recommending it again based on scientific evidence.