83 more die of COVID-19; 2972 fresh cases reported

ISLAMABAD: The coronavirus pandemic claimed 83 more lives, whereas 2,972 new infections were reported during the last 24 hours, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday.
According to the NCOC, the death toll in the country due to COVID-19 has reached 9,164. A total of 3,261 patients recovered from the disease during the last 24 hours while 2,447 patients were stated to be in critical condition.
The total count of active cases in the country is 42,478 while the positivity rate was recorded at 7.58 percent. According to the NCOC, with fresh inclusion of the infections in the country, the national tally of cases now currently stands at 451,494.
A total of 39,171 tests were conducted across the country during this period, while 6,216,060 samples have been tested thus far. Overall 399,852 people have recovered from the deadly disease so far in the country.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s coronavirus death toll has risen by over 1,000 since the start of December, data issued by the NCOC showed on Friday. The virus has claimed 1,073 lives in the last 17 days, bringing the national death toll to 9,168.
The death toll for the first half of the current month is higher than in November when a total of 1,268 people died of coronavirus. It was even lower before as the month of October recorded 339 COVID-19 deaths and September 186.
With over 1,300 new cases, Sindh’s COVID-19 tally has reached 201,080 while the second most infections have been reported in Punjab with a cumulative tally of 130,122. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 54,021 cases, Islamabad 35,700 and Balochistan 17,868. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan have so far reported 7,893 and 4,810 infections respectively.
Pakistan has one of the highest recovery rates in the world as over 87 percent of those diagnosed with the novel coronavirus have recovered. The most number of recoveries have been reported in Sindh with 178,027 people surviving the virus. Punjab has reported 115,701 recoveries, followed by 48,254 in KP, and 29,417 in Islamabad. Balochistan recorded 17,258 recoveries, AJK 6,588 and GB 4,607.- TLTP