ISLAMABAD: Country’s coronavirus tally Friday crossed one million cases after the country reported 1,425 new infections during the past 24 hours making it the 30th nation worldwide recording one million Covid-19 cases, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced.

According to the NCOC, 25,215 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours and the positivity ratio was recorded at 5.65 percent. After detecting 1,425 new Covid-19 cases across the country, the national tally of coronavirus cases crossing one million mark has reached 1,000,034 cases since the pandemic outbreak in February 2020.

The spread of Covid-19 in Pakistan which over the past two months had slowed down, during the past 10 days has once again shot up. During past two months the country has reported 100,034 cases or an average 1,640 cases. The NCOC reported the grim milestone exactly two months after Pakistan's tally of positive cases crossed 900,000.

The nationwide death toll from the coronavirus now stands at 22,939 after 11 people lost their lives to the disease. While the number of recovered patients stands at 923,472 and the active cases of the country are 53,623.

Since the pandemic outbreak, Sindh is on top with 362,182 coronavirus cases followed by Punjab with 351,707 cases, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) with 141,359 cases, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) with 85,230 cases, Balochistan with 29,357 cases, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 22,592 cases, and Gilgit-Baltistan 7,607 cases.

Out of 22,939 deaths recorded in the country, Punjab with 10,909 deaths is on top followed by Sindh with 5,785 deaths, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 4,405 deaths, ICT 789 deaths, AJK 608 deaths, Balochistan with 321 deaths, and GB 122 deaths.

On July 22nd, Pakistan’s COVID-19 positivity rate had shot up to 6.3 percent, which is the highest since May 20.

The country is reporting over 2,000 daily Covid cases for more than a week mostly Indian Delta variant which is the most dangerous one yet discovered, and lethal irrespective of vaccination. On the other hand, the government has failed to compel the people to adopt Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021