ISLAMABAD: There was no let-up in deaths claimed by Covid-19 as 110 more people died across the country on Friday.

The number of total deaths climbed to 15,982 while the total number of cases reached 745,182, says the data released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

According to the data, a total of 64,481 coronavirus tests were performed over the last 24 hours out of which 5,364 turned out to be positive. The total number of active Covid-19 cases across the country stood at 78,425.

Over the last 24 hours, Punjab reported 2,732 cases and 62 deaths; KP 1,129 cases and 35 deaths; Sindh 653 cases and 8 deaths; Islamabad 599 cases and 1 death; Azad Jammu and Kashmir 159 cases and 3 deaths; Balochistan 82 cases and 1 death; and Gilgit-Baltistan reported 10 such cases with no death.

The national positivity rate was 8.3 per cent. Punjab recorded the highest number of deaths over the last 24 hours with 62 fatalities, followed by KP with 35 deaths.

The NCOC reported that 4,123 people recovered from Covid-19 over the past 24 hours. As many as 650,775 people recovered from the disease in the country this year with a recovery rate of 87.3 per cent.

Meanwhile, ulema in their Friday prayer sermons across the country urged the people to follow medical experts’ opinion and the government’s guidelines for Covid-19 to save not only themselves but other people from the deadly virus as it was also obligatory on Muslims to adhere to Islamic injunctions about saving lives of all people.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs on Thursday had appealed to ulema and religious scholars to observe the first Friday of Ramazan as Youm-i-Tauba (Day of Forgiveness) to seek Allah’s forgiveness and blessings to contain the outbreak of the deadly disease in the country.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2021