4th wave: Pakistan's active Covid-19 cases reach three-month high at 85,633

Pakistan's total number of active Covid-19 cases climbed to 85,633 during the last 24 hours, the highest in over three months, as the country continued to battle the surge in infections.

On August 11, the country reported the highest number of active cases during the fourth wave. Active cases have risen from 30,000 reported on June 29 to over 80,000 in August. Overall, there are 4,584 critical cases out of which 71 patients' condition has deteriorated in the past 24 hours.

During the last 24 hours, the country reported 102 deaths, the highest death toll since May 20, when 102 fatalities were recorded. The rapid spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19 has pushed the death toll to 24,187.

As per the latest data by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 59,397 people were tested for the virus in the past 24 hours, out of which 4,934 people tested Covid positive.

2,145 fresh Covid-19 cases, 41 deaths reported in Sindh

The new cases have increased the country's coronavirus tally to 1,085,294. Additionally, the national positivity rate stood at 8.30%, an increase from the past three days when the level was recorded below 8%.

A total of 975,474 people have recovered in Pakistan after 3,376 more patients were reported to recover from Covid-19.

As Pakistan speeds up its vaccination drive, it has so far administered over 38,722,200 doses of the coronavirus vaccine. On Wednesday, Pakistan received its first tranche of Sinopharm vaccine procured through COVAX.

Air travel: Vaccination certificate a must after Sept 10

In a statement, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said that 976,782 doses of the vaccine landed in Islamabad while the remaining 5.1 million doses will arrive within the next four days.

"All will support the Government’s national vaccination drive, which recently hit the milestone of one million doses of vaccine administered in a day," UNICEF said.

Pakistan has been using Sinopharm, Moderna, Pfizer, CanSino and Sinovac vaccines to inoculate its population.

Meanwhile, the NCOC announced that no citizen will be allowed air travel after September 10 without complete coronavirus vaccination certificates. The forum announced that the partial vaccination certificate would become invalid after September 10, whereas all the provinces had been informed regarding this decision.

The government has already decided to bar unvaccinated people from travelling on trains from October 1.