Urban centres witness higher Covid positivity ratio

The Covid-19 positivity ratio on Sunday was higher in major urban centres of the country with 46.77 per cent in Nowshera, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

According to sources in the Ministry of National Health Services, the overall Covid positivity ratio in Pakistan stood at 12.46 per cent during the last 24 hours, with K-P recording the highest ratio of 16.25 per cent, followed by Sindh 12.37 per cent, Punjab 8.99 per cent, and Balochistan 7.80 per cent.

In federating units, Azad Jammu and Kashmir reported 21.98 per cent, while Gilgit-Baltistan 9.72 per cent.

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With regard to major urban cities, Muzaffarabad remained the second highest with a 34.09 per cent positivity ratio, followed by Karachi 21.67 per cent, Hyderabad 20.05 per cent, Lahore 19.30 per cent, G-B 18.99 per cent, Rawalpindi 16.07 per cent, Islamabad 14.77 per cent, Faisalabad 12.41 per cent and Quetta 10.21 per cent.

Pakistan reported as many as 7,978 Covid-19 cases in a single day on Sunday, the second-highest daily caseload since the outbreak of the pandemic in Feb 2020.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), a total of 64,016 samples were tested, of which 7,978 turned out to be positive, showing the infection rate of 12.46 per cent as compared to yesterday’s 11.31 per cent.

The nationwide tally of confirmed infections rose to 1,417,991 with an addition of 7,978 new cases. Twenty-nine more patients succumbed to the viral disease in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 29,248. The NCOC said the number of patients in critical care in various hospitals across the country has risen to 1,455.