Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has said the government could further tighten coronavirus restrictions as Pakistan grapples with the third wave of the pandemic.
The minister said the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) could impose strict curbs beginning Monday in light of the increasing coronavirus cases across the country.
On the vaccination front, the lawmaker said the country had struck agreements with two Chinese companies — CanSinoBio and Sinopharm — for vaccine supply. The first consignment would be available on March 25 and the second on March 30.
Pakistan’s coronavirus positivity rate spiked to 8% Friday after 3,449 new cases emerged during the last 24 hours, with 40 deaths registered, according to NCOC.
According to the daily data available on the National Command and Operation Centre's (NCOC) website, another 40 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total death tally to 13,757 across the country.
Meanwhile, the number of total active cases stands at 27,188 in Pakistan as of today. As per NCOC's statistics, about 813 patients have recovered from coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 578,314.