ISLAMABAD: The number of active coronavirus cases continues to decline as Pakistan reported less than 70,000 active cases for the first time since July 31 on Friday morning. The National Command and Operation Centre’s latest coronavirus report reported 2,928 new COVID-19 cases after 57,626 tests were taken in the last 24 hours, bringing the country’s total case count to 1,218,749. Those fresh cases were outpaced by 13,716 recoveries in the last 24 hours, pulling down active cases to 65,725. The number of active cases has fallen consistently over the last four days. As of now, some 1,125,952 patients have recovered since the pandemic started. Meanwhile, NCOC reported another 68 deaths from COVID over the last 24 hours, pushing the tally to 27,072. The country’s positivity rate stands at 5.08%. COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Pakistan, with 3,089 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 53% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on June 17. Pakistan has administered at least 70,402,987 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 16.3% of the country’s population. During the last week reported, Pakistan averaged about 954,803 doses administered each day. At that rate, it will take a further 46 days to administer enough doses for another 10% of the population.