ISLAMABAD: A day after reporting less than 6 percent coronavirus positivity rate, the country’s positivity rate jumped to over 7.1 percent during the last twenty-four hours, according to the National Command and Operation Centre’s (NCOC) statistics released on Sunday.
The fourth wave of the pandemic continues hitting the country hard as 3,842 new coronavirus infections were reported over the last 24 hours. The NCOC said that 3,842 people tested positive for the Covid-19 after 53,527 tests were taken across the country, showing a positivity rate of 7.18 percent.
The nationwide death toll from coronavirus has risen to 24,923 after 75 more people lost their lives to the disease during the past 24 hours. With the fresh count of 3,842 infections, the nationwide tally of Covid-19 cases has reached 1,123,812. So far 1,009,555 people have recovered from the virus while the number of active cases is 89,334.
In view of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the province, Sindh on Sunday decided to extend school closure till further notice. Earlier, the provincial government had announced that schools in Sindh would remain closed till August 30.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, in a statement, had said that teachers, staff and parents should be vaccinated before schools reopen.
“It has been decided to reopen universities, colleges and schools after 10 days. They would be opened on August 30,” he had said.
Sindh Education Minister Sardar Shah had said schools would reopen with only 50 percent of students in attendance, while the educational institutions that have a full vaccination rate will be allowed a 100 percent student strength.
Punjab reported 1,285 Covid-19 cases and 22 more deaths due to coronavirus during the past 24 hours. The tally of positive cases in the province currently stands at 379,574, while deaths total 11,527. Some 344,850 patients have recovered from the disease so far.
Meanwhile, more than 4.91 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, according to a tracking website affiliated with Oxford University.
Data shows that China, where the virus first emerged in late 2019, leads the global count with over 1.92 billion shots as of Saturday. – TLTP
