ISLAMABAD: Pakistan recorded 4,757 cases from COVID-19 as the situation continues to worsen from the coronavirus despite the restriction imposed by the government.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the coronavirus has claimed 78 more lives across the country during the past 24 hours as the overall death toll reaches 14,434.
The total number of cases recorded in the country have reached 667,957. There number of active cases has reached 50,397 while 3,197 people are in critical condition as hospital occupancy rise in many parts of the country. The positivity rate has increased and now stands at 10.16 percent.
A total of 43,965 tests were conducted across the country during this period. Since the detection of the first COVID-19 case in the country, overall 10,197,329 tests have been conducted so far while 603,126 cases have been recorded so far.
Punjab has recorded 230,392 cases and 6,365 deaths so far. There are 25,465 active cases in province. Islamabad has recorded 57,833 cases and 568 deaths while there are 9,807 active cases in the region. The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 87,055 cases and 2,342 deaths recorded so far.
Yesterday, Pakistan has reported 100 coronavirus deaths from the deadly virus. The last time COVID-19 deaths in the country reached 100 in a day was in December 2020. Most of these deaths were reported in Punjab followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The positivity ratio has been consistently higher than 5% since March 10. In a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre on Sunday, the government banned all indoor and outdoor wedding ceremonies from April 5.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has received its first purchase of 60,000 doses of the Chinese CanSino Biologics coronavirus vaccine. A plane carrying as many as 60,000 doses of single-dose CanSino Biologics vaccine arrived at the Islamabad International Airport.
The shipment was supposed to arrive in Pakistan on March 26 but got delayed due to some unavoidable circumstances. The fifth batch of Sinopharm vaccine will be brought to Pakistan on a special aircraft on March 31.
Pakistan has purchased 60,000 doses of single-dose CanSino vaccine and one million doses of Sinopharm vaccine. Pakistan had asked China for one million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar revealed that Pakistan will be getting bulk Covid-19 vaccine from China’s CanSino Biologics by mid-April.
