PESHAWAR: The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Friday reported 79 more deaths and 4,619 cases in the preceding 24 hours.
The NCOC said that with new fatalities, the total number of deaths in the country has reached 24,266 while the total number of positive cases has surged to 1,089,913. According to the NCOC, 59,504 Coronavirus tests were conducted in the last 24 hours and a positivity rate of 7.76% was recorded.
The highest number of deaths were reported in Punjab where 11,307 people have so lost their lives while 6,355 in Sindh, 4,624 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 827 in Islamabad, 161 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 332 in Balochistan and 660 in Azad Kashmir have succumbed to the virus.
Meanwhile, the Sindh government has issued a notification, announcing ban on business activities in the province on Friday and Sunday to curb the spread of coronavirus, however, basic commodities stores such as groceries, medical stores, dairy shops and bakeries will remain open.
A statement issued by the Sindh government said that the public transport vehicles will operate with 50 per cent of passengers. In such a situation, the passengers will be bound to pay double fare. The Sindh government has also imposed ban on tourists in the province till August 22 while ‘micro-smart’ lock-down has been implemented in several areas of the province.
On the other hand, the NCOC said that more than 40 million doses of coronavirus vaccine have been administered across the country and 70 million people will be needed to vaccinate to achieve ‘collective immunity’ for which over 100 million more doses will be procured. Federal minister for planning and head of NCOC Asad Umar said in a twitter post, “40 million doses of vaccines have been administered. The last 10 million doses were provided in just nine working days.” Umar urged the people to get vaccinate to clear Pakistan from the deadly Covid-19 virus.