ISLAMABAD, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) — Pakistan recorded 5,034 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, the first time after a period of nearly five and a half months that daily infections exceeded 5,000, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Tuesday.

The country recorded 5,661 infections on Aug. 4 last year.

Pakistan’s coronavirus positivity ratio also spiked to 9.45 percent in the last 24 hours as the Omicron variant continues to spread, the NCOC said.

The country also registered 10 more deaths over the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 29,029, the NCOC data showed, with overall cases reaching 1,333,521 after the detection of fresh infections.

Read more: Pakistan adds 4,286 new COVID-19 cases

The country’s southern Sindh province is the most affected region with 505,930 cases followed by the eastern Punjab province with 454,372 cases.

Over the last 24 hours, 1,125 patients have recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,264,611, said the NCOC.