Single day Covid tally hits four-month high

Education ministerial meeting postponed as new cases surge past 3,000

ISLAMABAD:

Almost all the Covid indicators shot on Thursday to the level witnessed during the height of previous waves of the pandemic, according to the daily data issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Thursday.

Because of a sharp increase in the new Covid cases during the last 24 hours, an interprovincial education ministers meeting was postponed until next week. The meeting was supposed to discuss, whether the educational institutions should stay open amid a fifth wave of coronavirus.

In its daily update, the NCOC— which serves as the nerve centre of the government’s unified effort to contain the spread of coronavirus— reported more than 3,000 new cases for first time since September 15, when 3,012 cases were confirmed.

The forum said that 3,019 new coronavirus cases were detected, while 5 patients died in the last 24 hours, nearly 1,000 more than 2,074 infections reported a day earlier. The update also showed a sharp increase in the national positivity ratio, which rose to 6.12% against 4.7% on Wednesday.

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More than half of the new Covid infections were reported from Sindh, which makes the province a hotspot of the pandemic. According to the NCOC, the province reported 1,733 cases during the last 24 hours, followed by 919 cases in Punjab and 284 cases in Islamabad.

The update said that the number of active Covid cases rose to 23,230, including 651 patients in critical condition. During the past 24 hours, 346 people recovered from the disease, raising the total number of recoveries to 1,260,045.

Covid first emerged in the country in country in February 2020 and hit its peak in the summer. The cases started declining in July only to rise again towards the end of the year in the form of its second wave.

Two more Covid waves were witnessed in the first quarter and then in the second quarter of last year. The waves were driven by deadlier delta and the Indian variant of coronavirus. Now, the country is in the grip of a fifth wave fuelled by a superspreader variant, Omicron.

Meeting postponed

Planning Minister Asad Umar, who heads the NCOC, had repeatedly asked the masses to get themselves vaccinated as Omicron was spreading fast in the country. The authorities had also said that there were no immediate plans for imposing a lockdown because of the new Covid wave.

Because of the increase in the Covid cases, the 34th meeting of the Provincial Education Minister's Conference (IPEMC) was postponed until next week, the federal Education Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier, this week, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had dismissed reports of any lockdown and schools closure. Our economy cannot bear the burden [of another lockdown]," he had said after the federal cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

(With input from agencies)