Daily Times

In response to the growing number of coronavirus infections, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir administration issued a 10-day ban on tourism locations in the province on Wednesday, according to a notification.

The restrictions will remain in place from July 19 to July 29, while tourism-related activities will also remain suspended during these days, the notification said.

Earlier in the day, the Sindh government also decided to close schools, impose a ban on indoor dining again, and place several other restrictions across the province as COVID-19 cases continue to increase amid fears of a fourth wave.

The steps were taken Wednesday during the meeting of the Provincial Coronavirus Taskforce headed by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.

During the meeting, the chief minister expressed concern over the worsening situation of COVID-19 in Sindh, where the positivity ratio has increased sharply during the past few days.

The development comes a day after the Federal Parliamentary Health Secretary Dr Nausheen Hamid had said Delta variant of the coronavirus — which first emerged in India — was making up a whopping 50% of the total infections in Pakistan.

Dr Hamid highlighted that no vaccine in the world is 100% effective against the Delta variant, however, if a person gets the jab, the virus will not affect their health badly.

Pakistan’s coronavirus positivity rate crossed 4% for the second time in the last three days Wednesday morning as the country continues to report a spike in its daily case count.

On Sunday, Pakistan had recorded its highest coronavirus positivity ratio at 4.09% since May 30, which was at 4.05%, according to the National Command and Operations Centre’s (NCOC) data. Currently, the infection rate stands at 4.17%.

NCOC’s data from Wednesday shows that 47,472 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours and 1,980 of them came back positive for coronavirus.

With 24 new fatalities from the virus, the national death tally pushed to 22,642.

The country’s active number of cases crossed the 40,000-mark after a little over a month. The active cases now stand at 40,862.

According to the official portal, the number of recoveries from coronavirus in the country has reached 915,343 and the total number of cases has reached 978,847.

According to a province-wise breakdown, the total cases reported in Sindh so far are 349,586, in Punjab 348,725, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 139,710, in Islamabad Capital Territory 83,956, in Balochistan 28,434, in Gilgit-Baltistan 7,044 and in Azad Jammu and Kashmir 21,392.