As Pakistan is witnessing an increase in coronavirus infection rate, 752 new cases were reported during the past 24 hours (Thursday), shows the latest figures released by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday morning.
Earlier on Thursday, the official data had revealed that the virus was found in 545 people.
In this scenario, the authorities shut down another 13 educational institutions in the country – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 10 and Sindh three – for not following the SOPs that led to the emergence of coronavirus cases.
These institutions were closed in addition to the 22 which had been shut down on the previous two days.
On June 14, the daily count had reached its maximum since the pandemic outbreak in the country when 6,825 people were diagnosed with the deadly virus. However, the trend was later reversed.
After 213 new cases reported officially on August 30 which marked the lowest daily count in Pakistan since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the country has been witnessing a gradual rise in infection rate.
But there has been a spike in new cases especially after the educational institutions were reopened in the country on September 15 after an over six-month-long break.
Meanwhile, Thursday also saw nine more people dying of the virus which raised the death toll to 6,408.
As far as the region-wise distribution of the cases in concerned, Sindh continues to be the most affected province with the virus found in 133,125 people.
Relevant figures for other provinces/ regions are: Punjab 98,142, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 37,242, Islamabad 16,033, Balochistan 13,991, Gilgit-Baltistan 3,381 and Azad Kashmir 2,472.
On the other hand, 579 coronavirus patients are currently in critical condition and being treated in the intensive care units of different hospitals. Meanwhile, 106 of them have been placed on ventilators.
However, there are 6,006 active cases in the country as of Thursday morning with 291,683 people fully recovering from the infection.
In this scenario, the testing process is also continuing across the country to identify and isolate those who have contracted the virus. Hence, 33,865 tests were administered during the past 24 hours, raising the overall count to 3,090,660.