Since corona started: Pakistan records highest daily cases

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan in the last 24 hours recorded 6,808 new COVID-19 cases, the second highest daily case count since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, the data shared by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed on Thursday.

The NCOC data says the highest daily positive cases were recorded on June 13, 2020, when the country reported 6,825 coronavirus cases. The national positivity ratio also jumped to nine-month high at 11.50 percent as the country witnessed a rapid rise in infections due to the Omicron variant.

The highest positivity rate at 41 percent was recorded in Karachi followed by Muzaffarabad 25 percent, Hyderabad 17.27 percent, Islamabad 15.37 percent, Lahore 14.25 percent, Rawalpindi 12.75 percent and Peshawar 11.20 percent. All these cities will be facing stringent protocol with ban on indoor weddings and gatherings and 50 percent attendance in schools of student below 12 years on staggering days.

In all, 58,943 tests were conducted out of which 6,808 were found positive while active cases also jumped to 51,094. After five more deaths, the death toll stands at 29,042.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 claimed 17 more lives overnight in Sindh including 13 in Karachi while the COVID-19 positivity reached 46.58 percent in the provincial capital, officials said, adding that 3,739 more cases emerged in the province when 17,002 tests were conducted.

With an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Karachi where 3,289 people were tested positive for the infectious disease, hospitalization also started to rise and currently 368 people are under treatment at different hospitals, of which 306 are on high and low flow oxygen while 21 are on ventilators, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said in his daily Covid-19 situation report on Thursday.

The chief minister maintained that with 17 more deaths in Sindh, the Covid-19 death toll reached 7,727 that constituted 1.5 per cent death rate and added that 17,002 samples were tested which detected 3,739 cases that constituted 22 per cent current detection rate.

He informed 7,419,686 tests have been conducted against which 514,863 cases were diagnosed, of them 91.9 per cent or 473,340 patients have recovered, including 332 overnight.

Murad Ali Shah said currently 33,796 patients are under treatment, of them 33,398 are in home isolation, 30 at isolation centres and 368 at different hospitals, adding that the condition of 306 patients is stated to be critical, including 21 shifted to ventilators.

According to him, out of 3,739 new cases, 3,289 have been detected in Karachi, including 1,345 East, 773 South, 655 Central, 261 Korangi, 145 Malir and 110 West. Similarly, Hyderabad reported 145 cases, Naushero Feroze 34, Jamshoro 29, Tharparkar 20, Tando Muhammad Khan 19, Badin 16, Dadu 15, Thatta, Umerkot and Sanghar 12 each, Larkana 11, Tando Allahyar, Jacobabad, Khairpur and Mirpurkhas 10 each, Shikarpur nine, Ghotki five, Shaheed Benazirabad four and Matiari one.

Vaccination: sharing the vaccination data, the CM said that 32,462,394 vaccine doses have been administered up to January 18, and added that during the last 24 hours, 237,284 people were inoculated in total 32,699,678 vaccine doses have been administered which constituted 59.01 per cent of the vaccine eligible population.

The chief minister urged people of the province to follow SOPs

By Our correspondent

KARACHI: The Sindh government on Thursday notified that the ban on indoor dining at restaurants and eateries in Karachi and Hyderabad would commence from January 21 (Friday) instead of the earlier date of January 24 notified for the purpose.

Additional Chief Secretary of Sindh Home Department Qazi Shahid Pervez issued a notification to this effect. The revised notification has been issued by the Sindh government’s Home Department in view of the latest directives of the National Command and Operation Centre for the cities in the country having coronavirus positivity ratio above 10 per cent.