The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said on Friday that the highest positivity rate of COVID-19 cases in the country has been recorded in Karachi.

According to NCOC, the national positivity rate is 5.9%, DAWN reported. Karachi has the highest positivity rate in the country at 15.97% followed by Peshawar at 13.62 % and Mirpur is the third-highest with 11.49%.

According to health experts, the surge in coronavirus cases in Karachi is due to the ideal weather conditions. A professor of public health at the Health Service Academy, Islamabad said that the cold weather with moderate humidity in the range of 45-60% is the ideal weather for the spread of COVID-19 and that is why its cases are surging in Karachi, Geo reported.

Meanwhile, Sindh has a positivity rate of 9.49%, Punjab 4.49%, Balochistan 4.75% and KP 5.5%. Whereas Islamabad's positivity rate stands at 2.43%, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir is at 7.36%.

In the last 24 hours, the country reported 2, 417 new cases of coronavirus. The country has so far reported 514,338 COVID-19 cases. 45 people also died from the virus taking the total death tally to 10, 863.