Pakistan sees rise in COVID-19 deaths after days of decline

• Daily COVID-19 death toll in Pakistan rises above 40 mark after five days.
• Pakistan's coronavirus positivity reaches 2.59%, with 1,232 new cases.
• 3,154 people infected with coronavirus recuperated overnight. 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's daily COVID-19 death toll witnessed a hike again after several days of decline as 43 people succumbed to the virus in a single day, the National Command and Operation Centre's (NCOC) data showed Wednesday morning.

The country's daily death count remained below the 40 mark for the last five days.

As per today's statistics, the new additions placed the country's total number of coronavirus deaths reported so far at 30,096.

The national COVID-19 body said it conducted 41,744 diagnostic tests in the last 24 hours, of which 1,232 came back positive. With this, Pakistan's coronavirus positivity ratio rose to 2.95% and the overall case count to 1,503,873.

Meanwhile, 3,154 people infected with coronavirus recuperated overnight, pushing the number of active cases down to 64,262.

NCOC lifts COVID-19 restrictions in three cities

The NCOC on Tuesday relaxed some of the general curbs enforced in the country, irrespective of the city-wise coronavirus positivity rates, after witnessing a decreasing trend of coronavirus countrywide.

Moreover, the forum also agreed to remove Karachi, Hyderabad and Peshawar from the list of cities/districts where it earlier had decided to keep restrictions in place.

The forum, last week, had issued a list of six cities/districts where the COVID-19 positivity was higher than 10%, saying that the already enforced restrictions will remain in place there.

The cities/districts still having COVID-19 positivity higher than 10% are Gilgit, Muzaffarabad and Mardan.