Pakistan sees uptick in daily COVID-19 deaths as infection kills another 42

Another 42 people succumbed to COVID-19 in Pakistan, the highest daily death count in nearly four months since October 7 when the country reported 46 deaths, the National Command and Operation Centre's (NCOC) data showed Thursday morning.

The new deaths pushed the country's death toll to 29,372. Moreover, as many as 1,590 coronavirus patients are said to be in critical condition.

The country reported 5,830 new cases in the last 24 hours after 59,786 diagnostic tests were conducted, placing Pakistan's COVID-19 positivity ratio at 9.75%, 

The confirmed active case count on Thursday was recorded at 100,072, keeping the bar above the 100,000 mark since January 30.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan wants the public to stop being lazy and get a booster shot if they haven't already, as Pakistan continues its battle against the Omicron-driven fifth COVID-19 wave.

He urged people to get their COVID-19 booster shots if six months had passed since they got their second vaccination dose.

"Scientific data has shown that people need an additional dose of the vaccine despite being fully vaccinated for protection against COVID-19 if six months and over have passed," Dr Sultan said, while addressing a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in Islamabad.

He said that earlier, the NCOC was only asking people to get the booster dose, but now it is recommending it again based on scientific evidence.