Daily Times

KARACHI: During the fifth wave of the pandemic, spurred by the Omicron form of the virus, Karachi is seeing an alarming increase in daily Covid-19 cases.

According to sources at the Federal Ministry of National Health, the port city had the highest infection positivity ratio in the last 24 hours, at 40.13 percent, followed by Muzaffarabad with a 21 percent positivity rate.

Yesterday 7,232 Covid tests were conducted in Karachi and 2,902 samples were diagnosed positive, health officials said.

Positive cases ratio in Hyderabad reached 14pc, Islamabad 12pc, Peshawar 11pc and Rawalpindi 10.26pc, according to officials.

Amid the raging fifth wave of coronavirus in the country, the ratio of positive cases in seven major cities has soared to over 10pc, officials said.

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Pakistan as the country has recovered over 5,000 fresh cases of the pandemic during the last 24 hours.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), a total of 57,669 samples were tested, out of which 5,427 turned out to be positive at the positivity rate of 9.48% as compared to yesterday’s 9.45 per cent.

With the addition of new cases, the total number of cases in the country has risen to 1,333,521.

COVID-19 has claimed the lives of eight additional people in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 29,037. The number of critically ill patients has risen to 908 people.