Lahore’s Covid positivity rate bounces back to 6.5pc

LAHORE: Lahore’s coronavirus test positivity ratio shot up to 6.5 per cent over the 24 hours leading to Saturday, Geo News reported, just days after Pakistan rolled back many restrictions amid a stepped up vaccination campaign.

The Geo News report said that despite the rise in infections in Lahore, across Punjab the ratio was 2 per cent. The Covid positivity ratio is the percentage of actual positive cases appearing in every 100 tests performed. The WHO says the positivity ratio must be below 5 per cent for contagion to be considered on the decline.

In Balochistan, the picture was not as rosy, as positive cases increased to more than 7.5 per cent. The positivity ratio in Pakistan was 3.3 per cent. Some 35,695 tests were conducted across the country on Friday. Pakistan’s active cases were 42,717 after 1,194 more people tested positive, while 57 Covid patients died, according to the National Command and Operation Centre’s (NCOC) situation update. Sindh accounted for most of the single day deaths, amounting to 24, followed by Punjab’s 22. The remaining victims were in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Some 2,990 patients were admitted in hospitals across the country, 2,760 of whom were in critical care. At least 325 were on ventilators. Ventilators occupancy was highest in Multan, 42 per cent.