Pakistan sees minor decline in daily COVID-19 case count, positivity ratio

• Pakistan reports 9.65% COVID-19 positivity and 5,327 fresh cases overnight.
• New cases place Pakistan's total number of confirmed cases at 1,430,366.
• 32 more people succumb to coronavirus, pushing country's COVID-19 death toll to 29,301.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported a COVID-19 positivity ratio below 10% for the first time since January 19, the National Command and Operation Centre's (NCOC) data showed Tuesday morning. However, the country's active case count remained above 100,000 for the fourth consecutive day.

As per the statistics issued by the NCOC, the country's daily case count, too, witnessed a dip in the last 24 hours as only 5,327 out of 55,202 diagnostic tests conducted countrywide came back positive. With this decline, Pakistan's COVID-19 positivity rate dropped to 9.65%.

On January 19, the positivity rate stood at 9.48%.

However, the new infections placed Pakistan's confirmed case count at 1,430,366, while the active case count clocked in at 105,675.

Meanwhile, 32 more people succumbed to coronavirus, which is the highest number of COVID-19 deaths since October 6, 2021, when the country reported 46 casualties.

Despite the decline in the daily case count and positivity rate, the death toll seems to be picking up, pushing the nationwide death toll to 29,301.

The NCOC has extended coronavirus curbs in the country from January 31 till February 15, as thousands continue to contract the infection amid a spread in the Omicron variant.

The forum had imposed non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on January 19, which were to be reviewed on January 27 in light of the COVID-19 situation in the country.

The restrictions for the wedding sector were already imposed till Feb 15.