Staff Reporter Islamabad
The fourth wave of Covid-19 pandemic has continued its upward trajectory, with Pakistan reporting 5,026 cases over the past 24 hours — the highest number of daily cases in the country since April 29 when 5,112 infections were reported.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the body responsible for the country’s Covid-19 response, the new cases were detected against 56,965 tests and took the overall national tally to 1,034,837.
The positivity rate of the daily cases was recorded at 8.8 per cent — up from 8.46pc the previous day.
62 more coronavirus-related fatalities raised the country’s death toll from the disease to 23,422.
Meanwhile, National Command and Operation Centre Chairman Asad Umar hinted at increased Covid restrictions in some major cities on Sunday, saying rec-ommendations in this regard will be submitted to PM Imran Khan today.
“The platform of NCOC does not have anything to do with politics; we enforce restrictions in a targeted way to ensure that people aren’t troubled by them,” Umar said while addressing a presser in Islamabad.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan was also present on the occasion.
“We succeeded in curbing the spread of Covid every time,” he said. “We will present our recommendations to the premier tomorrow, following which there’s a possibility of increased restrictions in some major cities,” the federal minister stated.
Citing the examples of neighbouring Iran and Indonesia, Umar observed that the situation in the region with regard to Covid was worsening. “We haven’t seen such a situation in Pakistan,” he maintained.
