No case of Beta variant of coronavirus since July 7

The health ministry said on Tuesday that none of the ‘Beta’ variant cases were detected in the month of August 2021 in Pakistan and the overall number of cases and positivity ratio were much lower in the country compared with many other countries in the world.

According to a ministry statement, Pakistan was “going through” a fourth wave of the pandemic, which is fuelled by the Indian-origin ‘Delta’ variant of coronavirus. It added that ‘Beta cases’ were found in samples between April 9, 2021, and July 7, 2021, but no such case was detected afterwards.

The ministry’s statement came in response to the issuance of a note about travel restrictions between the UK and Pakistan by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Pakistan continues to remain on the UK’s red list of Covid-related curbs.

According to the statement, the overall number of cases and positivity ratio were much lower in Pakistan compared with the countries such as Iran and Iraq, which continued to be on the Amber list – one notch lower than the red list.

As of August 30, the total number of active cases in Pakistan was 94,573, while the tally was 132,699 in Iraq and 678,188 in Iran. As of August 26, the seven-day rolling average of the positivity ratio was 6.9% in Pakistan, compared with 18.1% in Iraq and 32.7% in Iran, it added.

The ministry said that the overall testing strategy in Pakistan had been rational as it focused on individuals with clinical symptoms, contact tracing, and testing in specific epidemiologic risk-prone situations like schools.

“The overall impact of this strategy is evident in the successful handling of the pandemic so far – a fact that has been recognised at many levels and has yielded better outcomes than countries with much higher testing rates,” it added.

Meanwhile, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced on Tuesday that over 1.4 million Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered in a day, which was the highest ever target achieved since the vaccination campaign started in February this year.

The NCOC, which serves as the nerve centre of the country’s fight against the deadly contagion, said in a tweet that 1,405,352 vaccine doses were administered across the country in past 24 hours, raising the number of people receiving the jabs to 55,178,137.

Separately, the NCOC highlighted the rising per-day deaths on average in the country. It wrote that the total deaths from coronavirus reported in the country during the month of August were 2,428 with an average of 80 deaths per day.

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)