Number of Pakistan coronavirus fatalities drop in 24 hours

There was a significant decline in the number of coronavirus deaths in Pakistan during the last 24 hours (Wednesday) as 31 people lost their lives whereas 1,508 fresh cases were reported from throughout the country, showed the figures released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Thursday morning.

As per the latest NCOC statistics, the death toll has surged to 11,833 with the addition of 31 new cases while the number of confirmed cases stood at 550,540 with the addition of 1,508 new infections. Pakistan posted 56 deaths a day earlier, As of Thursday, the total count of active cases in the country was 32,889. The national positivity ratio is dropped to 3.41 percent.

During the past 24 hours (Wednesday), as many as 1,772 patients have recovered from the virus and 1,971 patients were still in critical condition. The number of total recoveries stood at 505,818.

As usual, Sindh remained the worst-hit province by the pandemic in terms of cases followed by Punjab and other provinces.

So far, 248,919 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 159,311 in Punjab, 67,803 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 41,655 in Islamabad, 18,840 in Balochistan, 9,100 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 4,912 in Gilgit Baltistan.

As many as 4,821 individuals have lost their lives to Covid-19 in Punjab, 4,036 in Sindh, 1,931 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 478 in Islamabad, 269 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 196 in Balochistan and 102 in Gilgit Baltistan.

Pakistan has so far conducted 8,085,427 coronavirus tests and 44,173 during the last 24 hours (Wednesday).

The national immunisation drive against novel Covid-19 started on Wednesday across Pakistan. The first tranche of the vaccine has reached all federating units, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan and the frontline health workers are being vaccinated in the first phase.

Global developments
Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

- WHO go to Wuhan lab -
World Health Organization inspectors visit the Chinese contagious diseases laboratory in Wuhan which Donald Trump controversially claimed might have been the source of the virus.

- Spain's toll passes 60,000 -
Spain's coronavirus death toll passes the 60,000 mark as another 565 people die over the previous 24 hours.

- Sputnik V in Germany? -  
Russia has reached out to German biotechnology company IDT Biologika to explore jointly producing the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the German health ministry says.

And Spain says it is "open" to using Sputnik V if it is approved by European regulators, a day after a study revealed the vaccine is safe and effective.

- Vaccine for variants -
British pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline and German biotech firm CureVac announce plans to jointly develop a jab with the potential to counter multiple variants.

- AstraZeneca doubts -
Belgium joins a growing list of European Union countries that are restricting use of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 jab to younger age brackets, limiting it to adults under age 55.

The regulatory authority in Switzerland also declines to authorise use of the Anglo-Swedish firm's vaccine, saying "new studies" are needed.

- Herd immunity? -
Initial data from Israel's coronavirus vaccination campaign shows the Pfizer/BioNTech jab protects against serious illness, but it is not yet clear whether it slows transmissions or spells progress toward achieving herd immunity, experts say.

- Covax list - 
The Covax programme for Covid-19 vaccines publishes its first distribution list, planning enough doses for dozens of countries to immunise more than three percent of their populations by mid-year.

- Air traffic plummets -
Global air passenger traffic plunged by an unprecedented 66 percent in 2020 due to travel restrictions imposed over the pandemic, the International Air Transport Association says.

- Australian Open woes -
Up to 600 tennis players and officials at the Australian Open are told to isolate and get tested as warm up events are cancelled after a hotel staff member tests positive.

- More than 2.2 million dead -
The coronavirus has killed more than 2,253,813 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally based on official sources at 1230 GMT.

The countries with the most deaths are the US on 446,901, Brazil 226,309 and Mexico 159,533.

The global death toll, calculated from official daily figures published by national health authorities, is an underestimate and does not include later revisions by statistics agencies.

With inputs from AFP.