Another 4,856 Covid-19 cases reported as Pakistan continues to battle fourth wave

Pakistan reported another 4,856 coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours at a positivity ratio of 7.5% as the fourth Covid wave continued in the country.

A total of 65,690 tests were conducted across the country, the highest number in over three months, amid Pakistan's push to vaccinate the population.

So far, 16.6 million tests have been conducted nationwide out of which 1.08 million cases have turned out to be positive since the pandemic began early last year.

Currently, the active number of cases remained above 80,000 as the country battles the surge in infections mainly driven by the highly-transmissible Delta variant.

Overall, there are 4,513 critical cases, while the positivity ratio was recorded below 8% for the third straight day. During the past 24 hours, the virus claimed 81 more lives, taking the death toll to 24,085.

4th wave: Active Covid-19 cases reach three-month high as Delta variant takes toll

Meanwhile, the total number of recoveries increased to 972,098 after 5,025 people recovered from the novel virus during the last 24 hours.

Overall, Sindh province remained the most affected region with 403,964 cases, followed by Punjab (367,054), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (149,532), Islamabad (91,672) Balochistan (31,298), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (27,899) and Gilgit Baltistan (8,941).

As Pakistan speeds up its vaccination drive, it has so far administered over 38,722,200 doses of the coronavirus vaccine. The government has also decided to bar unvaccinated people from travelling on trains from October 1.

Nong calls on President Alvi, says China to provide 6m Covid vaccines this week

Pakistan has already barred unvaccinated citizens from domestic air travel. Last month, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had announced that from August 31, people who have not been vaccinated will not be allowed to enter both public, private sector offices, businesses, and high-risk sectors.

In addition, people in high-risk areas including hotels, restaurants, and marriage halls would also have to get vaccinated, as well as those of law enforcement agencies, banks, NADRA, markets, shopping malls, and chain stores.

During his meeting with President Arif Alvi, Ambassador of China to Pakistan, Nong Rong, informed that Beijing would provide six million vaccine doses this week, and 100 million doses by the end of the year.

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