LAHORE: As many as 28 new Omicron cases have been surfaced in Lahore, the capital city of Punjab, in a day taking the number of total cases of the new strain of COVID-19 to 271 in the city. According to sources in the provincial health department, the number of Omicron cases detected in Punjab stands at 280 of which 271 reported from Lahore. “Stopping the new variant of coronavirus from spreading in Lahore has become a challenge for the provincial authorities,” they said and added the positivity ratio in the provincial capital has reached 5.7 percent. The fifth wave of the coronavirus seems to be intensifying in Pakistan as the country 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 viral disease died during the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 28,962. The number of Covid patients in critical care in various hospitals all over the country has come down to 629. According to an AFP count based on official data, the total number of Covid-19 cases registered globally since the start of the pandemic have topped 300 million.