Islamabad: Pakistan on Thursday reported 102 fatalities caused by COVID-19 and 4,934 new cases in the last 24 hours showing the coronavirus positivity rate has climbed to 8.30 per cent from 7.5 per cent a day earlier.
According to the National Command & Operation Centre (NCOC), this is the highest single-day toll reported in three months. On May 20, 104 deaths were reported.
The NCOC data further shows a surge in the active cases of COVID-19 from 84,177 on Wednesday to 85,633 on Thursday.
Despite vaccination drive going at full pace in the country, COVID-19 cases continue to surge, causing concern among health authorities.
Over the past 24 hours, 952,206 doses were administered while the number of those fully vaccinated so far stands at 4.466 million.
Asad Umar, Chairman of the NCOC and Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiative in a tweet shared that the government had administered 40 million doses and the last 10 million (1 crore) were administered in nine working days only. Let’s vaccinate and make Pakistan safe from this disease, said Umar in his tweet.
The government had earlier announced its target of administering 70 million jabs to people through its nationwide vaccination campaign by the end of December.
PIA to airlift 10 million doses of COVID-19 from China
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is operating eight special flights to airlift 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from China to Pakistan.
According to Country Manager of the national flag carrier, Qadir Bux Sangi, a number of Pakistan-bound flights would be leaving Beijing Airport in the coming days with the Chinese vaccines onboard.
“So far PIA has brought around 35 million doses of Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines to Pakistan from China”, he said.
Islamabad positivity jumps to 10%
A number of restaurants were sealed in Islamabad over violations of COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on Thursday. Recently, the capital city experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases. According to the District Health Officer (DHO) of Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia, 561 individuals were tested positive after 5,421 tests were conducted during the past 24 hours.
