Daily Covid death toll stays above 100 for fifth consecutive day

ISLAMABAD:

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday further expanded the scope of the Covid-19 vaccine reducing age limit for being eligible to get the jab to 50 years, as the country witnessed more 100 fatalities for fifth straight day. The NCOC, which serves as the synchronised government strategy to contain the coronavirus pandemic, said in its daily update that the overall national death toll from the deadly contagion crossed 16,000 after 112 people died during the past 24 hours.

Asad Umar, who heads the NCOC, said in a tweet that vaccination for citizens between the ages of 50 and 59 will be started from April 21. He added that the decision was taken in an NCOC meeting on Saturday. “I once again encourage everyone to register for the vaccination,” he added. Coronavirus first emerged in the country in February last year. The first wave of the disease started ebbing after seeing its peak in June. However, there was another spike in cases towards the end of the year, dubbed by experts as the second wave.

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Since, March there was another spike in the new cases, which Umar had described as the third wave of the disease fuelled by the UK strain of the virus. For most part of March, singleday tally of new cases hovered over 4,000 while they single-day death toll topped 100 for past five days. The NCOC daily bulletin 4,976 new coronavirus cases were detected in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s caseload to 750,159. After 112 fatalities on Friday, it added, the nationwide death toll rose to 16,094.

The NCOC further said that during the past 24 hours, 105 people died in hospitals, while seven succumbed to the disease at homes or in quarantine. It added that most of the deaths occurred in Punjab followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). According to the bulletin, the number of active cases soared to 79,108, including 4,984 patients admitted to 630 hospitals across the country, equipped with Covid-19 facilities. It added that 520 patients were on ventilators.