Coronavirus Rapidly Spreading, with Positivity Ratio Rising to 4.5%: NCOC

With the second wave of the deadly Covid-19 hitting the country all over again, National Command and Operating Center (NCOC) has warned the nation that the positivity ratio of the novel coronavirus is growing fast across major urban cities of Pakistan. 

All across Pakistan, micro-small lockdowns, rounding about 4,136, have been placed. 

As per the daily updates issued by NCOC, which is supervising the nation’s battle against the fatal infection, on November 08, 33,340 lab tests were conducted across the country. Of these, 1,650 turned out to be positive. 

During the last twenty-four hours, nine lives have been claimed by the lethal virus which has risen the toll of nationwide deaths to 6,976. Of which, 2,684 deaths belonged to Sindh, 1,288 to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2,408 to Punjab, 154 to Balochistan, 241 to Islamabad Capital Territory, 109 to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and 93 to Gilgit-Baltistan. 

A total of 50,815,027 people have been infected by the virus so far in all the continents globally, except for Antarctica.

Topping the number of most coronavirus cases is the United States of America, with a total number of 10,288,480 infections, India is the second on the list with 8,555,109 number of positive cases. Whereas Brazil and Russia have 5,664115 and 1,796,132 total positive cases of the Covid-19 respectively. 

The overall countrywide positivity rate of the coronavirus test is 4.5%, the NCOC, during its daily meeting summoned in Islamabad on Monday, was informed. It was also added that the positive rate is amassing rapidly especially in the main cities of the country. 

Fifteen big cities have a positivity ratio at high, noted the forum. Of these cities, Hyderabad has the highest ratio of positive cases being 16.59%, Gilgit, being the second on the list, has a 15.38% positivity ratio, Multan with 15.97%, Muzaffarabad with 14.12%, Mirpur with 11.11%, Peshawar with 9.69%, Quetta with 8.03%, Islamabad with 7.48%, Karachi with 7.12%, Lahore with 5.37%, and Rawalpindi with 4.63%. 

The development in the coronavirus positivity ratio and the latest implementation measures, which were put in place after the National Coordination Committee (NCC) meeting, was discussed in detail by the NCOC. 

Micro-small lockdowns, numbering 4,136, have been placed across Pakistan, the forum was informed. Furthermore, the forum was told that to control and prevent the spread of coronavirus, the strategy of Test-Trace-Quarantine (TTQ) is being applied.

The NCOC was notified that the federating units were issued more than thirteen thousand oxygen cylinders, and oxygenated beds amounting to 2,811 were added to increase the capacity of the state-run hospitals.

The forum lauded and appreciated the provincial governments for putting efforts into taking necessary and immediate procedures for developing strategies to prevent any further damage and to ensure public health and safety.