Daily Times

After more than a month of recording historic-high cases, Pakistan is finally seeing a decline in the trend of coronavirus infections. On Sunday, the national positivity rate fell to 8.7%.

As per NCOC’s stats, 56,051 diagnostic tests were performed, of which 4,874 came back positive on Sunday. The decline in the daily COVID-19 case count pushed the positivity ratio down to 8.69% and active cases to 90,797 in a single day. However, the total number of coronavirus cases rose to 1,459,773.

Meanwhile, the countrywide COVID-19 death tally was placed at 29,478 as 30 more people succumbed to the virus on Sunday.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, Dr Faisal Sultan, has asked the public to “stop being lazy and get their booster shots if they haven’t already.”

As Pakistan fights the fifth COVID-19 wave led by the Omicron, Dr Sultan urged people to get their shots. Prior to that, he had told people to get their COVID-19 booster shots if it had been more than six months since they had their second dose.

During the current wave of the virus, Karachi emerged to be the hub of cases. At one point in time, the city’s positivity rate crossed 40%. As of now, 10 cities, Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Swabi, Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan, Gilgit, Muzaffarabad and Mirpur, have reported over 10% Covid-19 positivity.

Last week, the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan approved the sale of Covid-19 testing kits to the general public. The move aimed at reducing the spread of the virus.

According to a notification, the kits will be available at medical stores and pharmacies across Pakistan. It costs between Rs400 and Rs600.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Health Care Commission has set the maximum rate that the diagnostic laboratories and hospitals can charge for Covid-19 tests, revising the prices downwards.

Labs or hospitals can charge up to Rs 4,500 for Covid-19 RT-PCR test. In case of home collection, they are allowed to charge a maximum of Rs 4,800. Earlier, the hospitals and laboratories were charging Rs 6,500 for a PCR test.

Similarly, the rate of Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) conducted in labs has also been revised to Rs 1,200. Earlier, the labs could charge anywhere between Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 for it.

Meanwhile, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar shared on Sunday that Pakistan has been setting the highest daily vaccination records for three consecutive days. “Highest daily vaccination records set three days in a row,” tweeted Umar.

Umar, who also holds the portfolio for the planning ministry, shared that the nationwide mobile vaccination campaign, designed by the NCOC and being “implemented with the help of provinces is producing outstanding results”. “Target is to reach all citizens to allow us to finally end all COVID-19 related restrictions,” explained Umar.