COVID-19 kills 44 more with 3,677 fresh cases

ISLAMABAD: The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 44 more lives in the country during the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 13,843, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Sunday.
According to the NCOC, 3,677 fresh infections were reported during the aforementioned period, taking the country’s tally for cases so far reported to 626,802. The country’s nerve centre for Covid-19 response added that the total number of active cases in the country currently stood at 31,107, with at least 3,667 cases recorded in the last 24 hours.
The positivity ratio was recorded at 8.73 percent, as a total of 41,960 tests were conducted across the country on Saturday. Since the detection of the first Covid-19 case in the country, overall 9,773,993 tests have been conducted so far.
Some 2,900 patients were stated to be in critical condition across the country. Another 2,092 people recovered from the deadly disease during the last 24 hours, taking up the number of recovered people in the country to 581,852.
As per the statistics issued by the NCOC, Punjab again recorded the highest number of Covid-19 deaths over the last 24 hours, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Out of 44 deaths recorded in the country, 30 occurred in Punjab whereas KP recorded six deaths.
Out of the total number of deaths, 5,974 deaths have occurred in Punjab, 4,479 in Sindh, 2,208 in KP, 543 in Islamabad, 203 in Balochistan, 333 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and 103 in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).
On March 12, Federal Planning Minister and NCOC chief Asad Umar confirmed that the third wave of Covid-19 had started in Pakistan, attributing the rising number of cases to the virus’ UK strain.
“Yes, there is no doubt that the third wave has started and basically, the phenomena that’s driving it is the spread of the UK strain,” Umar said while talking to a private news channel
When asked whether a third wave of the virus has started with the surge in the cases, Umar said that the uptick in cases was witnessed in districts where a large portion of the Pakistan British community lives. – TLTP