Corona positivity rate close to 10pc

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s coronavirus cases rose by 3,795 in the past 24 hours, raising the tally to 420,294 as the country struggles to contain the second wave of infections with the positivity rate nearing 10pc, data issued by the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) showed on Monday.

For the first time in five months, the country’s case positivity rate climbed to 9.7% with SARS-CoV-2 being detected in 3,795 samples out of the total 39,076 PCR tests conducted throughout Pakistan.

With 37 new deaths, the COVID-19 death toll has climbed to 8,398. There are 55,354 active cases across the country — of which 2,539 are in critical care. Condition of 103 patients has deteriorated in the past 24 hours.

With a seven-day average of over 3,000 cases, Pakistan has recorded 22,271 new infections in the past week. The mortality rate has fallen to 1.9% from 2.0% last week.

The country has a recovery rate of over 84% as 356,542 patients have defeated the virus since the outbreak surfaced in February this year. In the past 24 hours, the highest positivity rate has been observed in Karachi at 21.31pc, followed by Abbottabad at 17.86% and

Peshawar 16.66%. Hyderabad recorded positivity rate of 14% while Rawalpindi reported 12.09% and Lahore 9.74%. The total active COVID-19 cases on Monday were recorded 55,354.

Thirty-seven corona patients, of whom 36 were under treatment in hospitals and one out of the hospital died on Sunday.

No COVID affected person was on ventilator in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan while 353 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in Pakistan, out of 1,749 allocated for COVID-19 patients.

Some 39,076 tests were conducted across the country on Sunday, including 12,720 in Sindh, 14,577 in Punjab, 5,550 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 4,901 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 224 in Balochistan, 450 in GB, and 654 in AJK.

Around 356,542 people have recovered so far across the country making it a significant count with over 86 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients.

Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 420,294 cases have been detected so far, including AJK 7,356, Balochistan 17,466, GB 4,732, ICT 32,816, KP 49,676, Punjab 123,762 and Sindh 184,486.

About 8,398 deaths have been recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion, including 3,019 in Sindh, 3,177 in Punjab, 1,413 in KP, 341 in ICT, 169 in Balochistan, 98 in GB and 181 in AJK.

A total of 5,794,242 tests have been conducted so far, while 616 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Some 3,094 corona patients were admitted to hospitals across the country.