Covid positivity rate stays above 2% in Pakistan

Pakistan has recorded 100 plus more Covid-19 infections with no fatality during the last 24 hours (Friday), showed the statistics released by the National Institute of Health (NIH) on Saturday morning, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

According to the NIH data, the death toll in the country remained the same at 30,645 whereas the number of total infections now shot up to 1,578,155 after adding the fresh 109 cases.

During the last 24 hours (Friday), 4,320 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio stood at 2.05%. The number of patients in critical care stood at 14.

COVID-19 Statistics 18 March 2023
Total Tests in Last 24 Hours: 5,320
Positive Cases: 109
Positivity %: 2.05%
Deaths: 00
Patients on Critical Care: 14
(shared by NCOC-NIH)

— NIH Pakistan (@NIH_Pakistan) March 18, 2023

WHO sees Covid posing similar threat to flu this year

The Covid-19 pandemic could settle down this year to a point where it poses a threat similar to flu, the World Health Organization said Friday.

The WHO voiced confidence that it will be able to declare an end to the emergency some time in 2023, saying it was increasingly hopeful about the pandemic phase of the virus coming to a close.

Last weekend marked three years since the UN health agency first described the situation as a pandemic -- though WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insists countries should have jolted into action several weeks before.

"I think we're coming to that point where we can look at Covid-19 in the same way we look at seasonal influenza," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference.

"A threat to health, a virus that will continue to kill. But a virus that is not disrupting our society or disrupting our hospital systems, and I believe that that will come, as Tedros said, this year."

The WHO chief said the world was in a much better position now than it has been at any time during the pandemic.

"I am confident that this year we will be able to say that Covid-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)," he said.

- 5,000 deaths a week -

The WHO declared a PHEIC -- the highest level of alarm it can sound -- on January 30, 2020, when, outside of China, fewer than 100 cases and no deaths had been reported.

But it was only when Tedros described the worsening situation as a pandemic on March 11 that year that many countries seemed to wake up to the danger.

"Three years later, there are almost seven million reported deaths from Covid-19, although we know that the actual number of deaths is much higher."

He was pleased that, for the first time, the weekly number of reported deaths over the past four weeks has been lower than when he first described Covid-19 as a pandemic.

But he said more than 5,000 deaths reported per week was 5,000 too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated.

- Data emerges -

The first infections with the new coronavirus were recorded in late 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

"Even as we become increasingly hopeful about the end of the pandemic, the question of how it began remains unanswered," Tedros said, as he turned to address data that recently came to light concerning the early days of the pandemic.

The data, from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, relates to samples taken at the Huanan market in Wuhan, in 2020.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid, said they showed molecular evidence that animals were sold at the market, including animals susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 -- the virus that causes Covid-19 disease.

The information was published on the GISAID global science initiative database in late January, then was taken down again -- but not before some scientists downloaded and analysed it, and informed the WHO last weekend.

"These data could have -- and should have -- been shared three years ago," Tedros lamented.

"We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data, and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results."

Van Kerkhove said all theories about where the outbreak began remain on the table.

They include entering the human population via a bat, an intermediate host animal, or through a biosecurity breach at a laboratory, she said.

UK to end Covid testing requirement for China arrivals

Travellers flying to the UK from China will no longer need proof of a negative Covid test from April 5, the government announced on Friday, ending a requirement in place since early January.

Voluntary testing for coronavirus of passengers arriving at London's Heathrow Airport from China was also scrapped immediately, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

The UK was among more than a dozen countries to impose the regulations on travellers from China around two months ago, as the Asian nation faced a surge in virus cases after relaxing strict curbs.

The United States, some European Union states and others were concerned about the potential for deadly new variants to spread globally.

But the situation within China has since improved, leading to Friday's announcement by the UK government.

"The removal of these measures comes as China has increased information sharing regarding testing, vaccination and genomic sequencing results, providing greater transparency on their domestic disease levels," the DHSC said in a statement.

"Latest international genomics data indicates that the Covid variants observed in China continue to be the same as those already circulating in the UK."

The department added that the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has also reported that all regions in the country have passed their infection peak.

"The ending of this enhanced surveillance is in line with international partners such as the EU who are reducing border measures to monitor new variants from China," it noted.

 

With inputs from AFP.