ISLAMABAD: The country on Sunday reported the highest national positivity rate of 3.16 per cent during the ongoing fifth wave of coronavirus, with Karachi touching the record 15.09pc.

The situation also started worsening in Mirpur and Lahore where the positivity ratio reached 7.69pc and 5.33pc, respectively. The country reported over 1,500 infections — the highest since Oct 2.

According to data released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 1,572 cases and seven deaths were reported over the past 24 hours.

It is worth mentioning that the country had reported 3.23pc positivity on Sept 27, 2021, which started declining and remained less than 3pc. The lowest positivity ratio of 0.69pc was reported on Dec 13, which again started increasing.

According to a document available with Dawn, Karachi’s positivity rate stood at 15.09pc, followed by 7.69 in Mirpur (AJK), 5.33pc in Lahore, 3.2pc in Peshawar, 3.13pc in Gilgit, 3.1pc in Hyderabad, 2.96pc in Islamabad and 2.31pc Rawalpindi.

The document showed that the country reported the highest positivity rate of 22.24pc during the first wave of Covid-19 on June 1, 2020, 7.94pc during the second wave on December 7, 2020, 10.1pc during the third wave on April 19, 2021, and 8.32pc during the fourth wave on August 2, 2021.

As many as 18,114 healthcare workers have been infected since the pandemic hit the country in February 2020, of which 25pc were performing duties in critical care departments. So far 28,969 deaths have been reported — 14.15pc of them in the age group of over 80 years, 10.49pc in the age group of 70 to 80 years, 7pc in the age group of 60 to 70 years, 3.8pc in the age group of 50 to 60 years and less than 2pc in other age groups.

The NCOC data showed that the number of active Covid-19 cases, which was less than 10,000 in December, reached 16,432 on Sunday, with 750 patients having been hospitalised.

Moreover, 162,115,885 doses of vaccine have been administered across the country. As many as 99,454,273 persons have received at least one dose while 73,862,234 were fully vaccinated.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2022