Single day Covid death toll rises to 48

ISLAMABAD:

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) reported on Friday the highest single day death toll since the first week of October, as the country battles the fifth wave of coronavirus pandemic driven by the superspreader Omicron variant.

The NCOC, which serves as the nerve centre of the government’s unified strategy to stem the pandemic spread, said in its daily update that 48 people breathed their last in the last 24 hours, taking the overall death toll since the pandemic outbreak in February 2020 to 29,420.

The forum said that 6,377 more people tested positive during the last 24 hours, raising the national caseload of the disease to 1,448,663. The national positivity ratio, it added, was 9.94%. As of Friday, it said, there were 101,858 active Covid cases, including 1,618 patients in critical care.

The NCOC is battling the Omicron variant with strict non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) along with a robust vaccination campaign. The Health Ministry said that the country reached a new vaccination milestone, administering over 180 million vaccines.