Six major cities in the country reported over 20 percent positivity rate Thursday morning as the fifth wave of the coronavirus intensifies in the country.
The country’s active COVID-19 case count crossed the 90,000 mark for the first time in over four months as the Omicron variant of the virus pushes the cases in the country.
Previously, the country saw 90,539 active COVID-19 cases on September 12.
According to details, Peshawar reported the highest test positive rate in the country, with 35.89 percent in the last 24 hours. After Peshawar, Muzaffarabad recorded the second-highest with a test positive ratio of 28.60 per cent during the same period. Karachi and Hyderabad logged 26.3 per cent and 22.41 per cent positivity rates respectively. COVID-19 claimed 25 more lives in the country during the last 24 hours, making it the highest death toll in a single day since October 24.
The coronavirus positivity rate, meanwhile, is still over 10 per cent for the eighth day in a row.
The statistics issued by the NCOC suggested that 7,539 new infections were detected overnight after 63,272 diagnostic tests were conducted countrywide, which placed the country’s positivity rate at 11.91 per cent.
With the detection of new cases, the number of total cases has jumped to 1.393 million. The active case count stands at 91,854.
Considering the gravity of the situation, the federal government has decided to make necessary arrangements before allowing citizens to get back to their normal routine and impose further restrictions in cities with a positivity ratio higher than 10 per cent.
Sources have also suggested that the NCOC has decided to extend the coronavirus curbs in the country from January 31 till February 15. The NCOC had imposed the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on January 19, which were to be reviewed on Thursday in light of the COVID-19 situation in the country.
