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ISLAMABAD: As many as 3,308 new cases and 58 deaths were reported due to Covid-19 on Sunday and the national positivity ratio reached 7.94 per cent across the country.
Pakistan, which was once in top 10 countries of the world in terms of the number of cases, has dropped to 28th rank and the country is much better than the United States, India, Russia, France, United Kingdom, Iran, Turkey and Bangladesh.
According to the data released by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) the number of total active cases of Covid-19 reached 53,126 across the country.
The data showed that 357 ventilators, out of 1,762 vents allocated for Covid-19, were in use. There was no patient on ventilator in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) on Sunday.
Pakistan drops to 28th rank in terms of the number of Covid cases
The NCOC further said that while the national positivity ratio, which is measured through the number of positive cases in 100 samples, was 7.94pc, the highest positivity ratio was observed in Mirpur with 22pc positivity, followed by Karachi at 17.39pc and Peshawar 16.02pc.
The positivity ratio across the country was as follows: Balochistan, 11.62pc; Sindh, 11.47pc; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 11.29pc; AJK, 10.83pc; Islamabad, 6.16pc; Punjab, 4.42pc; and GB, 2.68pc
In Punjab, Rawalpindi was on top of the list with 11.26pc positivity ratio, Lahore 5.47pc and Faisalabad 3.98pc. In Sindh, Karachi had 17.39pc positivity rate and Hyderabad had 10.36pc positivity.
In KP, Peshawar had 16.02pc positivity ratio while Swat had 4.64pc positivity. In Balochistan, Quetta had 6.19pc positivity. In AJK, Mirpur had 22pc and Muzaffarabad 6.76pc. In GB the positivity in Gilgit was 6.67pc.
The NCOC data revealed that 2,436 Covid-19 patients were in critical condition across the country and the number of such patients was rising.
Meanwhile, the international data showed the US had the highest number of Covid-19 cases with around 15 million cases and around 290,000 deaths.
In other countries of the world badly hit by the pandemic, India had 9.6 million cases with 140,000 deaths; Brazil had 6.5m cases, 176,000 deaths; UK 1.7m cases, 61,000 deaths; Iran over 1m cases, 50,000 deaths; Turkey 0.79m cases, 14,000 deaths; and Bangladesh, 0.47m cases and 6,800 deaths.
In Pakistan, a total of 416,499 cases and 8,361 deaths have been reported and the country is ranked at 28th position in terms of the number of cases.
The virus was first detected in China in December 2019 and then it started spreading to other countries. Pakistan closed its borders and took a number of steps to stop the transmission of the disease and because of this the first case of Covid-19 in the country was reported in the last week of February.
On March 13, the first meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), comprising top civil and military leadership, was held to discuss the crisis which was later declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Prime Minister Imran Khan had chaired a meeting of the NSC and directed authorities concerned to make a comprehensive strategy to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.
On March 16 last year, a lockdown was announced and a number of industries, including construction industry, educational institutions, restaurants and marriage halls, were closed.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was involved to ensure medical equipment and health-related supplies at the earliest due to which coordination with provinces improved. The country also sealed its western borders with Afghanistan and Iran and even the Kartarpur shrine was closed for local people.
When the number of coronavirus cases started to decrease across the country, the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Covid-19 allowed reopening of the construction industry on Aug 7, tourism sector on Aug 8 and restaurants and transport sectors on Aug 10.
Later, restrictions on educational institutions and marriage halls were also lifted and they reopened on Sept 15.