ISLAMABAD: The National Covid-19 positivity rate remained less than five per cent and only three cities reported a rate of over 10pc on Wednesday as the fifth wave of coronavirus has been subsiding with every passing day.

During the past 24 hours, 2,465 more infections and 49 deaths were reported across the country, while 1,534 patients were in critical care.

According to a document available with Dawn, 14.47pc positivity was reported in Muzaffarabad, 13.68pc in Peshawar and 10.53pc in Mardan. Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Gujrat, Nowshera, Bannu, Abbottabad and Quetta reported over 5pc positivity, but less than 10pc.

Last month, 16 cities had reported over 10pc positivity rate.

As many as 204,441,222 doses of vaccine have been administered across the country. Over 120 million people have received at least one dose, out of which more than 93m have become fully vaccinated.

While 2.02pc confirmed patients of Covid-19 died in Pakistan, the global rate was 1.51pc. In Pakistan, 61pc people, who contracted the virus, were male. The average age of patients was between two months and over 100 years and median age was 63 years.

As many as 79pc of the deceased were over the age of 50 years, 69pc had chronic comorbidity and 91pc of the deceased remained hospitalised and their average stay was 6.5 days, ranging from 1 to 173 days.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2022