Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The Ministry of National Health Services on Friday clarified that the new variant of the Coronavirus surfaced in the United Kingdom (UK) was yet to be detected in Pakistan.
“Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination remains vigilant about the emergence of new variant of SARS CoV-2 detected in the UK,” a press release said. The ministry said that the situation in Pakistan was being closely monitored as all the passengers arriving from UK were screened.
“The National Institute of Health is sensitive and on alert regarding this new strain for timely detection and addressal,” it added.
Meawhile, death toll in Pakistan reached 9,753 after the coronavirus claimed 85 more lives during the past 24 hours, showed the latest data released by National Command and Operation Centre on Friday.
The latest deaths came a day after the country witnessed one of the deadliest 24 hours since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak with 111 people dying of the infection.
Punjab has so far reported 3,831 deaths with the addition of 48 on Thursday followed by 3,440 in Sindh after another 21 patients dying of the virus, making the two provinces the worst-hit regions of the country.
Meanwhile, there were eight more deaths in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four in Islamabad and two each in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. The overall corresponding deaths figures for provinces/regions other than Punjab and Sindh are: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1,585, Islamabad 402, Azad Kashmir 213, Balochistan 183 and Gilgit-Baltistan 101.
In Sindh, another 1,107 people were diagnosed with the virus while the daily count for Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad stood at 471, 384 and 123 respectively.
Hence, the region-wise distribution of the reported coronavirus cases in given as: Sindh 208,514, Punjab 134,345, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 56,544, Islamabad 36,844, Balochistan 18,028, Azad Kashmir 8,103 and Gilgit-Baltistan 4,844.
As far as the active cases are concerned, the country currently has 38,511 coronavirus patients with the majority of them having been isolated at their homes or other places for having mild symptoms. However, 2,382 of them are in a critical condition and thus admitted in intensive care units of different hospitals.
