ISLAMABAD: While the number of Pakistan’s active Covid-19 cases has inc­rea­sed seven times in less than one month, as many as 7,195 persons were infected and eight succumbed to the coronavirus in the past 24 hours.

Besides, the number of critical patients has increased by 40 per cent in around a month.

On Monday, the national positivity rate was recorded at 12.53pc and as many as 10 cities reported over 10pc positivity rate.

According to the data of the National Command and Operation Centre, the number of active cases has incre­ased by over seven times in less than a month and surpassed the figure of 70,000 as compared to 9,831 active cases on December 26, 2021.

Similarly, the number of critical cases was around 700 a month ago but it rose to 1,113 on Monday.

The date shows that as many as 10 cities have repor­ted over 10pc positivity rate out of which four cities are in Khyber Pakhtun­khwa, two each in Punjab and Sindh and one in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The federal capital has also reported over 10pc positivity rate.

Those cities include Karachi which has reported 37.23pc positivity rate, Peshawar 26.43pc, Muzaffarabad 25pc, Hyderabad 18.05pc, Rawalpindi 17.36pc, Mardan 16.01pc, Lahore 15.02pc, Abbottabad 13.32pc, Islamabad 12.72pc and Nowshera 12.24pc.

Meanwhile, as Pakistan has conducted 107,585 Covid-19 tests per million population (PMP) with an average of 35,341 tests per day, Islamabad has conducted highest number of PMP tests i.e. 1,094,414. Sindh has conducted 147,071 tests PMP, Gilgit Baltistan 129,894, KP 106,568, Punjab 80,043 and AJK 79,890. Balochistan has conducted lowest number of PMP tests i.e. 37,282.

Earlier, the country witnessed four waves of Covid-19 and the fifth wave, which is Omicron-driven, is going on. Omicron is a new variant of coronavirus which is considered less lethal as compared to Delta but has many times more transmissibility rate due to which more people are infected in less time.

Earlier the country had reported less than 7,000 cases during the first wave which was a record number but during the fifth wave Pakistan has been reporting over 7,000 cases for last some days.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2022