Daily Times

The coronavirus claimed 135 more lives while 2,566 new cases emerged during the last 24 hours, said the National Command and Operation Centre(NCOC) on Tuesday.

According to the NCOC, the country’s death toll climbed to 19,752 after 135 more people succumbed to the deadly disease. The new coronavirus cases have taken the country’s Covid-19 tally to 882,928.

The NCOC said that the national coronavirus positivity ratio stands at 8.61 percent, as 29,801 Covid-19 tests were carried out, out of which 2,566 returned positive. Meanwhile, 2,989 patients recovered from the deadly disease in a day taking total recoveries to 795,511. According to NCOC, total active Covid-19 cases across the country were reported to be 67,665.

Punjab currently leads the provinces and federating units in most cases with 328,775 cases, Sindh is second with 299,913 cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported 127,224 cases, Islamabad 79,371 cases, Balochistan 23,931 cases, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 18,286 cases, and Gilgit Baltistan 5,428 cases.

Punjab reported 89 more deaths from the novel coronavirus over the last 24 hours, taking the provincial tally to 9,500. According to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, 1,413 fresh infections were detected during the same period, raising the number of confirmed cases to 328,775. A total of 12,972 samples were tested, out of which 1,413 were declared positive. Of the 1,413 new cases, Lahore reported 400, Sargodha 115, Bahawalpur 102, Faisalabad 90, and Rawalpindi 193.

Sindh reported 719 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, taking the province’s Covid-19 tally to 299,913.

The province’s death toll climbed to 4,824 after 23 more people succumbed to the deadly disease. Meanwhile, 666 patients recovered from the deadly disease in a day taking total recoveries to 276,742.

Mild side-effects

Rejecting the speculations regarding non-availability of Sinopharm vaccine in the country, Special Assistant to the PM on National Health Dr Faisal Sultan has said the vaccination campaign will continue without any break.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Dr Sultan said the authorities are not suggesting mixing up vaccines based on scientific data. “Sinopharm is available at vaccination centres, it is incorrect to say that the vaccine’s stock has ended — get yourself vaccinated.”

He said that they want a person to be administered both doses of the same vaccine. He maintained that those people who were administered the first dose of Sinopharm vaccine will be given the same vaccine.

The special assistant said claims against AstraZeneca were baseless and that its benefits outweighs the negative effects. He said that vaccination for people above 40 has already started from the 12th of this month. He said that the people are encouraged to vaccinate themselves on priority basis to get rid of coronavirus risks. He said that strict adherence to standard operating procedures (SoPs) is imperative for countering the third wave of Covid-19. He said that according to the latest figures, due to effective implementations of SoPs, decline in corona cases has been recorded. He said efforts of the National Control and Operation Centre (NCOC) in this regard are appreciable. Earlier in the day in a series of tweets, Dr Faisal Sultan said that nearly 0.1 percent of people, who had received the coronavirus vaccine, reported side effects.