ISLAMABAD: The fifth strain of COVID seems to be getting hold as Pakistan reported 1,345 fresh cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, marking the third consecutive day of more than 1,000 infections. According to the data shared by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the country’s nerve centre for Covid response, a total of 46,537 samples were tested, out of which 1,345 turned out to be positive, showing the national positivity rate of 2.89 per cent. One more patient of the pandemic died during the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 28,962. The number of Covid patients in critical care in various hospitals across the country has come down to 629. According to an AFP count based on official data, the tally of Covid-19 cases registered globally since the start of the pandemic have topped 300 million. More than 13.5 million infections have been detected worldwide in the last week, a massive rise of 64 per cent over the previous seven days, averaging out at 1,938,395 new infections per day.