Pakistan reports 85 deaths, 4,553 Covid cases during last 24 hours

With the ongoing fourth wave of Covid-19, Pakistan on Thursday recorded 4,553 new coronavirus cases taking the total to 1,140,411.

According to National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the positivity rate of the country stands at 7.4 per cent while a total of 85 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours taking the total death toll to 25,320.

As many as 1,022,847 people are reported to have recovered from the virus whereas 5,476 people are still considered to be in critical condition.

A day earlier, Pakistan recorded a four-month high death toll of 141 people who succumbed to the virus.

The national tally of total active COVID-19 cases was recorded as 91,204, on Wednesday with 4,199 more people testing positive and 3,915 people recovering from the disease during the time span.

Earlier this week, Federal Planning Minister Asad Umar announced government’s revised restrictions for a number of cities to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country.

In a press conference after a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the minister stated market will be allowed to open till 8pm while indoor and outdoor dining will be completely banned.

It was further stated that 50 per cent work-from-home policy should be resumed and public transport will also be allowed to operate with 50 per cent occupancy

Asad further said that two off days will be observed in a week.

The new restrictions, which will last from August 3 to August 31 and will apply to Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan in Punjab; Peshawar and Abbottabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Karachi and Hyderabad in Sindh (after the current partial lockdown in Sindh ends on Aug 8); Islamabad; Muzaffarabad and Mirpur in Azad Kashmir; and Gilgit and Skardu in Gilgit-Baltistan.