Health

ISLAMABAD: With no let-up in Covid-19 cases, 32 streets in the capital were sealed on Sunday while health authorities recommended smart lockdowns in 17 areas of Rawalpindi district. As many as 555 people were found infected by the virus in both districts, with the positivity rate in the capital touching 10.6pc. On the other hand, while violation of standard operating …

LAHORE: Following persistent increase in positivity ratio of Delta variant cases and detection of California strain of Covid-19 in the city, the Punjab government imposed a smart lockdown in 13 areas of Lahore on Saturday. The lockdown was imposed in seven streets of Samanabad, two of Allama Iqbal Town and in some areas of Aziz Bhatti Town, Cantonment, Gulberg and …

The fourth wave of Covid-19 pandemic has continued its upward trajectory, with Pakistan reporting 5,029 cases over the past 24 hours — the highest number of daily cases in the country since April 29 when 5,112 infections were reported. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the body responsible for the country’s Covid-19 response, the new cases were …

KARACHI: The strained relations between the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in Sindh and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the centre suffered another blow on Saturday when the provincial administration revised its coronavirus lockdown restrictions it had imposed a day earlier, but Islamabad still called the lockdown decision “defiance of the terms agreed between the two sides”, rejecting a “curfew-like situation …

KARACHI: People are rushing for Covid-19 vaccination in large numbers following the government announcement that mobile phone SIMs of unvaccinated people would be blocked and they wouldn’t get their August salary, it emerged on Saturday. Sources said long queues were being seen at all vaccination centres across the province, particularly in Karachi, where the situation became serious when people waiting …

UNITED NATIONS: Hun­g­er is expected to rise in 23 global hotspots in the next three months with the highest alerts for catastrophic situations in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, southern Madagascar, Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria, two UN agencies warned on Friday. The Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme said in a new report on Hunger Hotspots between …

WASHINGTON: Millions of Americans could find themselves homeless starting on Sunday as a nationwide ban on evictions expires, against a backdrop of surging coronavirus cases and political fingerpointing. With billions in government funds meant to help renters still untapped, President Joe Biden this week urged Congress to extend the 11-month-old moratorium, after a recent Supreme Court ruling meant the White …

GENEVA: The world is at risk of losing hard-won gains in fighting Covid-19 as the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads, but WHO-approved vaccines remain effective, the World Health Organisation said on Friday. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has described the Delta variant of the coronavirus as being as transmissible as chickenpox and cautioned it could cause …

BEIJING: Hundreds of thousands of people in China were in coronavirus lockdown on Friday as the country battled its worst outbreak in months, while the United States intensified vaccination efforts in the face of a Delta variant-fuelled surge. The World Health Organisation has warned that the highly transmissible strain, first detected in India, could unleash more Covid-19 outbreaks in a …

RAWALPINDI: The number of active Covid-19 cases in the country crossed the 60,000 mark on Friday as 4,537 more people tested positive for the deadly virus while 86 patients died during the last 24 hours in the country. The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday decided to take all possible measures to assist the government in combating spread …