Pakistan's coronavirus death toll exceeds 8,700 as virus claims 71 lives in last 24 hours

Pakistan's novel coronavirus death toll has surged to 8,724 with the virus claiming 71 lives in the last 24 hours, data issued by the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) showed on Saturday. 

The highest fatality rates of 2.8% and 2.6% have been observed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab respectively. The two provinces are closely followed by Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) with a fatality rate of 2.4% while Gilgit Baltistan reported 2.0% and Sindh 1.6%. Balochistan has the lowest fatality rate of 0.98$.

With 32 people dying of the novel coronavirus, Punjab recorded the most deaths across the country in the past 24 hours. Sindh reported 22, KP and Islamabad recorded five and two died in AJK. 

Since the beginning of December, Pakistan is losing about 57 lives on average per day as 634 people have died of COVID-19 in the past 11 days. During the early months of the pandemic, the country was reporting as many as 139 deaths every day with a mortality rate of over 2.14%. 

The current rate stands at 2.0%.

Read our analysis on mortality rates

New cases

Out of the 41,426 PCR tests conducted across the country, SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 2,729 on Friday, raising the country's coronavirus tally to 435,056. 

With 1,489 people testing positive for COVID-19, Sindh continues to report highest positivity rate of 12.91%. Punjab reported 629 new infections with a positivity rate of 3.87%, while Balochistan's rate stands at 10.48% with 46 new cases. At least 42 people tested positive for the virus in AJK as the region's positivity rate remains above 8%. With 252 new infections, KP's positivity rate stands at 4.12% and GB's at 1.23%.

Karachi continues to report the highest positivity rate at 20.88%  followed by Peshawar at 15.05% and Muzaffarabad at 11.20%. 

Recoveries

At 87.68%, Pakistan has one of the highest recovery rates in the world as a total of 381,208 survived the deadly disease - 2,116 in the past 24 hours only.

The highest recovery rate has been observed in Balochistan as 96% of the coronavirus patients have beaten the virus, followed by GB at 95.15% and Punjab 91.06%. KP has reported a recovery rate of 88% and Sindh at 86% while Islamabad and AJK recorded 79.8% and 79.2% respectively.

Read our daily COVID-19 report

Bids to contain virus

With the rising spread of the virus, the federal government on December 9 warned it would shut down more sectors if the public continued to violate coronavirus SOPs.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development and NCOC chief Asad Umar said there was a rapid increase in infections during the second wave as the public was less serious than it was during the first wave.

He warned that if the virus is not contained, the government may decide to close down more sector and impose stricter restrictions in two weeks time.

The federal government has already made face masks mandatory in public spaces, limited large public gatherings to 300, banned indoor weddings, closed shrines, cinemas, and theatres, and instructed public and private offices to adopt work-from-home policy and 50% occupancy.

The federal government has also announced that educational institutes will remain closed from November 26 to January 10. The students will study at home or get weekly homework till December 24 and winter vacations will start December 25. The schools will reopen on January 11 - which is subject to coronavirus situation then. All examinations have been postponed except admission and recruitment tests.

Furthermore, all provinces have banned indoor dining and limited timings for markets, shops, and shopping malls. Many areas in the country have been placed under smart lockdowns.