Covid on the rise despite government restrictions
A woman, Basanti, 71, reacts as she receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 9, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Akhtar Soomro
Despite imposition of restrictions on public activities, the coronavirus pandemic has shown no signs of slowing down as the positivity rate remained above 11 percent for the third consecutive, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) revealed on Saturday.
On January 19, the government imposed non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to control the worsening situation with the spread of Omicron variant. The restrictions were scheduled to be reviewed on January 27.
Seeing no signs of remission in the pandemic as thousands continued to be infected, the government then extended these restrictions till February 15.
Read: PIA lauded for Covid prevention
According to the NCOC, 70,389 tests were conducted across the country between Friday and Saturday, out of which 7,963 came out positive, thus recording a positivity rate of 11.31 percent. This brings the total number of recorded cases to 1.41 million since the beginning of the outbreak in Pakistan.
Moreover, NCOC revealed that during these 24 hours, 27 patients died of complications related to the coronavirus. With the addition of these casualties, the death toll went up to 29,219.
On the other hand, 1,276,719 patients had recovered from the coronavirus disease.
The NCOC also revealed that as of Saturday there were 104,095 active cases in Pakistan, out of which, 1,375 were in a critical condition.