Pakistan logs below 2,000 daily COVID-19 cases after over a month

ISLAMABAD: The fifth wave of COVID-19 has lost steam in Pakistan as the country continued to record a decline in its daily coronavirus numbers, data showed  on Saturday. 

As per the latest stats of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) issued on Saturday morning, the country reported 1,983 fresh coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, making it the lowest number of single-day infections after almost a month.

Pakistan last reported 1,467 cases on January 11.

The country’s COVID-19 positivity rate also dropped to the lowest figure, 4.15%, since January 11 as the virus cases continue to decline in the country, said NCOC.

The total number of cases after the latest additions climbed to 1,498,676 while 26 deaths in the last 24 hours took the death toll to 29,976 in the country.

The national COVID-19 body said Pakistan conducted 47,780 tests of the infection in the last 24 hours. At least 2,782 people, meanwhile, recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the tally of recoveries to 1,399,000.

The number of active cases stands at 69,700. The active cases have fallen consistently over the last three days. Among the active cases, 1,439 patients are under critical care.

Among cities where coronavirus positivity rate remained below 5% include:

• Karachi —4.55%
• Rawalpindi — 2.83%
• Quetta — 2.41%
• Islamabad — 2.10%
• Faisalabad — 2.10%
• Multan — 1.65%
• Swat — 1.15%

Meanwhile, cities where the positivity rate remained alarmingly high, were:

• Gilgit — 28.95%
• Muzaffarabad — 16.87%
• Mardan — 15.43%
• Hyderabad — 13.87%
• Mirpur — 10.53%