Staff Reporter
Karachi
Pakistan’s Coronavirus death toll rose by 89 in 24 hours for the first time in five months as the country struggles to contain the second wave of infections.
Both Sindh and Punjab recorded 41 new deaths while six died of coronavirus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. With 2,885 new infections, the number of coronavirus cases reported across the country reached 423,179 – out of which 44,218 cases are active. At least 2,486 patients are under critical care with 336 on ventilators.
The case positivity rate has shot up to 8.58% with the highest Covid-19 prevalence observed in Karachi as 21.80% of the PCR tests conducted in the past 24 hours detected SARS-CoV-2, followed by 18.31% in Mirpur and 16% in Muzaffarabad. Hyderabad’s positivity rate has fallen to 9.15% and Lahore’s to 5.98% while Rawalpindi recorded 8.51% and 14.91%.
Overall, Sindh has the highest case positivity rate of 13.87%, AJK is second at 9.77%, closely followed by KP at 9.67% while Balochistan reported 8.68%, Islamabad 4.88%, Punjab 4%, and GB 2.78%.
Smart lockdown have been imposed at 4,503 spots with a population of around 150 million across the country, said the officials, adding that strict steps are being taken to curb the virus spread in provinces besides enforcement of SOPs.
The Punjab Primary and Secondary Health Department on Tuesday enforced ‘smart lockdowns’ in several areas of Lahore that have been identified as Covid-19 hotspots.
