Pakistan's COVID-19 positivity at 4.5-month high with over 800 fresh cases

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Women wear protective masks as they walk through a crowd along a market in Karachi on Dec 2, 2021. — Reuters
Women wear protective masks as they walk through a crowd along a market in Karachi on Dec 2, 2021. — Reuters

  • Pakistan logs 805 COVID-19 cases in a single day.
  • Country's coronavirus positivity rate stands at 4.69%.
  • One patient succumbs to COVID-19.


The fresh COVID-19 case count in Pakistan has grown past the 800-mark once again as the infection continues to spread with every passing day, National Institute of Health, Islamabad (NIH) data showed Wednesday morning.

The last time the number of new COVID-19 cases grew this high was on July 2, when the country logged 818 new cases.

However, today, Pakistan's coronavirus positivity ratio is slightly higher than that and stands at 4.69%, which is the highest in the last four-and-a-half months. The last highest was on February 18 when the country recorded a positivity rate of 4.92%.

A total of 805 out of 17,150 diagnostic tests for COVID-19 came back positive, as per the stats of the last 24 hours. 

Meanwhile, one patient succumbed to the virus, while 168 others are being treated in critical care units at different medical facilities across the country.

Experts blame two sub-variants of the Omicron variant, namely BA.4 and BA.5, for the rise in COVID-19 cases in Pakistan, saying that they have escape mutations that are giving them an edge.

They say the sub-variants have also been infecting people who are already vaccinated or have already been infected with COVD-19, but no evidence is available to show if they are causing any severe disease among the vaccinated people.