Daily Times

On Saturday, the latest stats released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed that the country has reported 8 coronavirus deaths and 431 new cases in the last 24 hours (Friday).

After adding the fresh 431 cases, the number of total infections now stands at 1,286,453. However, the overall death toll surged 28,761.

Moreover, a total of 47,084 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan in the last 24 hours from which 431 came COVID positive.

Whereas, the infection rate was recorded at 0.91 percent. Although, the number of patients in critical care was 858.

However, as of yesterday, 189 patients have recovered from the virus and the total recoveries now climbed to 1,245,344.

As of Saturday, the total count of active cases in the country was recorded at 12,348.

Furthermore, 476,494 coronavirus cases in Sindh, 443,379 in Punjab 180,254 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 107,848 in Islamabad, 33,491in Balochistan, 34,574 in Azad Kashmir, and 10,413 in Gilgit-Baltistan have so far been confirmed by NCOC.

Earlier, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) directed the provinces to speed up the vaccination process amidst the threat of highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Although, Pakistan has decided to restart the coronavirus rapid test (CRT) of passengers at all international airports to avoid the spreading of a new variant. The government feared passengers coming from abroad may cause the spread of Omicron in the country.

As per the decision, the rapid test would be administrated to the passengers arriving from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran and Iraq.