Coronavirus cases, positivity ratio sharply drop in Pakistan

The number of everyday coronavirus infections in Pakistan has dropped sharply as the country reported 183 cases and seven deaths during the last 24 hours (Thursday), showed the statistics released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday morning.

As per the latest NCOC data, after the addition of seven new deaths, the overall toll has now surged to 30,326 whereas the number of total infections now stood at 1,520,817 after adding the fresh 183 cases.

During the last 24 hours (Thursday), 28,544 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity nosedived to 0.64 percent. The number of patients in critical care was 525.

During the last 24 hours (Thursday), as many as 788 patients have recovered from the virus whereas the total recoveries stood at 1,473,616. As of Friday, the total count of active cases in the country was recorded at 16,875.

As many as 572,868 coronavirus cases have so far been confirmed in Sindh, 504,219 in Punjab, 218,503 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 134,910 in Islamabad, 35,454 in Balochistan, 43,206 in Azad Kashmir and 11,657 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Moreover, 13,545 individuals have lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab so far, 8,091 in Sindh, 6,307 in KP, 1,022 in Islamabad, 792 in Azad Kashmir, 378 in Balochistan and 191 in Gilgit Baltistan.

 

Moderna seeks approval of second booster

Moderna announced Thursday it had asked the United States drug regulator for emergency authorization for a second booster shot of the company's Covid-19 vaccine for all adults.

The request to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would "allow for a fourth dose of our #COVID19 vaccine in adults 18 years of age and older who have received an initial booster" of any approved Covid jab, Moderna said on Twitter.

The request comes days after Pfizer-BioNTech, makers of the other Covid mRNA vaccine, also requested emergency approval for a second booster shot, but their request was limited to adults aged 65 and older.

Moderna said in a separate statement that its request had a broader scope so the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and health care providers could have "flexibility" in determining appropriate use of the second booster, such as for seniors or immunocompromised people.

The request was based partly on recent data from the United States and Israel about how well the Moderna shot protected against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Pfizer also based its request off two Israeli studies, which it said in a press statement show "an additional mRNA booster increases immunogenicity and lowers rates of confirmed infections and severe illness."

The first Israeli study showed that "rates of confirmed infections were 2 times lower and rates of severe illness were 4 times lower among individuals who received an additional booster dose," compared to those who only had one.

The analysis was limited to people age 60 and older who received their second booster four months after their first.

The second study -- an analysis of Israeli health care workers 18 and up -- showed that antibody levels in those who received a second booster were significantly higher than those who did not.

Since the initial regimen of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines is two doses, a second booster would be most individuals' fourth jab.

Recent studies have offered evidence that while a third mRNA vaccine dose raises antibody levels above those of the initial regimen, a fourth dose only returns individuals' levels to that same highly-elevated level.

Too early yet for second booster: EU watchdog

It is too early to call for a second Covid-19 booster shot, Europe's medicines watchdog said Thursday, despite a rapid spike in new infections caused by the rampant Omicron variant.

Speaking at the European Medicines Agency's bi-weekly press conference, the EMA's vaccines strategy head added that scrapping coronavirus rules in many countries may have played a role in the current rise in cases.

"We notice that infection rates are increasing again in some member states after the steady decrease we witnessed over the past few weeks," Marco Cavaleri said.

The Amsterdam-based agency is "continuing to monitor the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines against the Omicron variant," Cavaleri said.

But "I want to reiterate there is not yet enough evidence… supporting a recommendation for a second booster shot in the general population," he said.

The World Health Organisation on Wednesday voiced alarm at the rising Covid-19 infections globally, despite a drop in testing levels.

After falling for weeks, reported Covid cases rose globally by eight percent last week, with more than 11 million cases and over 43,000 new deaths registered, WHO said.

More than two years into the pandemic, which has officially claimed more than six million deaths -- with the true figure believed to be several times as high -- the resurgence in cases can mainly be blamed on the spread of infectuous sub-lineages of the Omicron variant, particularly BA.2, Cavaleri said.

He again urged EU residents to get vaccinated, saying "we can see a pattern that countries with high vaccination rates are reporting significantly lower death and hospitalisation rates."

Asked whether the lifting of coronavirus restrictions in many countries had been premature, Cavaleri said: "it is difficult to say whether restrictions have been lifted too early.

"But clearly at this stage we might have to consider that probably this is one of those aspects that contributed to an increase of these cases," Cavaleri said.

The regulator has so far approved five vaccines for use in the EU: Pfizer and Moderna, which use messenger RNA technology, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which use viral vector technology, and Novavax, which is based on a spike protein produced in a laboratory.

With inputs from AFP.