STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD
Coronavirus cases across the country continue to be on the rise with Pakistan reporting 2,664 new infections over the past 24 hours, on Sunday.
The positivity percentage of the virus has been measured at 6.6% while 32 people have passed away from the disease in a single day.
The fresh number of cases reported over the past 24 hours mean that the total number of cases in the country has risen to 652,000.
Out of these, 570,000 have recovered from the novel virus while total death toll has increased to 13,508.
Meanwhile, the Chief of the Awami National Party Asfandyar Wali Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-N MPA from Punjab, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Samar Haroon Bilour, the spokesperson for ANP, took to Twitter on Sunday and announced that the party’s chief has contracted the virus as confirmed by his PCR test.
“All meetings of ANP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including “Da Ghani Mela” have been postponed. New dates will be announced soon,” she said.
The former provincial minister and PML-N xwMPA from Punjab, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman after being tested positive for the Covid-19 has gone into isolation at his home. He has appealed to the nation to pray for his swift recovery.
As the third wave of the novel coronavirus intensifies in the country, Punjab on Sunday reported 1,653 Covid-19 cases for the first time since June 2020.
Till now 261,179 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 185,468 in Punjab 75,725 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 47,710 in Islamabad, 19,206 in Balochistan, 10,952 in Azad Kashmir and 4,960 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Meanwhile, almost 100 officers and personnel of the Sindh Police have tested positive for Covid-19, the potentially deadly disease caused by the novel coronavirus, over the last week.
According to a spokesperson for the Sindh Police, dozens of officers have contracted the coronavirus within a week, with the tests of 94 of them coming positive over the last seven days.
The majority of cases, 973, were reported in the capital, Lahore, followed by 81 in Gujranwala, 76 in Sialkot, and 73 in Rawalpindi, according to the daily situation report from the health department.
Amid the rising cases, the provincial government has imposed a lockdown in seven high-burdened cities, restricting the movement of the people to their homes, while “all commercial activities, establishments, markets and areas throughout the province of Punjab shall be closed by 6pm.”
The major lockdown will start from Monday (today) for two weeks in the seven cities after a gap of a year.
According to data generated by the next-generation sequencing system, which has been imported from China, the United Kingdom’s highly infectious variant is present in Lahore, Jhelum, Okara, and Gujrat.
Meanwhile, a number of health officials in Punjab are also diagnosed with the coronavirus.
CEO District Health Authority Punjab, Dr Muhammad Siddique Mastoi, Incharge Expo Centre Vaccine Centre, MS Wapda Hospital, Dr Aamir Yakoob have also been confirmed with the coronavirus.
Six officials and 15 employees who meet the CEO Health are currently going through the Covid diagnosis test, while medical officials and doctors of the WAPDA hospital are also reported Covid positive.
