ISLAMABAD: In a rare phenomenon amid the ren­ewed wave of coronavirus, number of active cases in the country dropped as 3,354 patients fully recovered during the last 24 hours when 3,262 more tested positive for the virus, according to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data released on Friday.

However, 55 more people, including a former judge, died in a single day after contracting coronavirus, taking the death toll across the cou­n­try to 8,260. The demise of former judge of an accountability court Arshad Malik was confirmed by his relatives, describing his condition critical for the past two days. The judge who rema­ined in the limelight during the Panama Papers cases against ex-premier Nawaz Sharif, had been under treatment at Shifa International Hospital.

The NCOC, which had recorded 51,654 active cases a day ago, has now put the figure of active cases in Pakistan as 51,507. During the past 24 hours, it mentioned, 3,262 new cases were confirmed and 3,354 patients fully recovered.

Also, Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari defeated the deadly virus, PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira confirmed on Friday. He said the leader fully recovered as his latest test result was negative.

So far, 410,072 people across the country have contracted the virus since its outbreak in the last week of February. Among them, 350,305 have fully recovered, 8,260 died and 51,507 are active cases.

According to the area-wise data of the NCOC, 24 patients died in Punjab, 14 died in Sindh, 12 died in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three deaths were reported from Islamabad, Gilgit-Balitistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir recorded one death each while no death was reported from Balochistan during the past 24 hours.

Among the new cases, Sindh reported 1,664 cases, Punjab reported 670 cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 345 cases and Balochistan recorded 65 cases while Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir collectively reported 567 coronavirus cases.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2020