'Time for all of us to take Covid SOPs seriously again': Asad Umar warns as Country's COVID-19 positivity rate reaches highest since August

Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has said that the country's COVID-19 positivity rate rose to 2.37 percent on Wednesday which is the highest in more than 50 days.

The country reported 755 new coronavirus cases and 13 deaths during the last 24 hours. 315 people also recovered from the virus. Currently, there are 9,209 active cases in the country.

In a tweet on Thursday, the minister said the highest positivity rate was last seen on August 23. Umar continued that the average of the first four days of this week's virus deaths is 11 per day, which is the highest since August 10th.

Warning that these are signs of a spike in coronavirus, the minister said that while positivity remains extremely high in Muzaffarabad and Karachi, it is also rising in Lahore and Islamabad.

"Time for all of us to take covid sop's seriously again. Otherwise, unfortunately, we may have to take restrictive actions which have negative effects on people's livelihoods," Umar added.

On October 11, Umar said that the national coronavirus positivity rate rose above two percent after a six-week average of less than two percent. He urged people to cooperate with the authorities in following coronavirus precautionary measures.