ISLAMABAD: The country on Wednesday reported zero Covid-19 deaths, the first time since April 1, 2020 that a day has passed without such an incident. The first death in the country from coronavirus was reported on March 20, 2020, in Sindh

According to data of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) released on Wednesday, 443 more coronavirus infections were reported over the past 24 hours, but there was not a single death related to Covid-19.

The data further showed that although a number of times a single death had been reported in Pakistan, since April 1, 2020, zero mortality had never been the case. The national positivity rate, according to the data, was 1.28 per cent.

NCOC data shows 443 new cases

Vice Chancellor of University of Health Sciences Prof Dr Javed Akram said that although the virulence of virus had become reduced, it still had the potential to spread and the people should not take it lightly.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar also announced the development on his Twitter account.

“Alhamdulillah no Covid-related deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours. This is the first time in 2 years that this has happened,” he tweeted.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Akram said the people should not forget that although the virulence of the virus had become decreased, it (virus) had the same transmission potential.

“A reasonable portion of the population has been vaccinated in the country and others have been infected due to which a short-term immunity has been developed in the masses, but the people should continue taking precautions and follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) because the number of cases is still around 500 and that can start multiplying rapidly again,” he said.

The NCOC data showed that 219,368,557 doses of vaccine had been administered to the people. As many as 128,074,138 people have got at least one dose of the vaccine. Of these, 101,881,176 have become fully vaccinated. Moreover, 4,869,245 people have been administered the booster dose.

Dr Akram said the virus had the ability to bounce back, especially for diabetic and heart patients.

“The 50pc population of over 50 years old has been suffering from heart diseases and 25pc of the overall population is diabetic and 30pc is overweight. So there is very much the issue of comorbidity in the country and the virus can be fatal for these people. So I suggest that people should continue to follow SOPs,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2022