Islamabad (Web Desk): Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who also heads the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), on Wednesday urged the people to fully vaccinate themselves against COVID-19 to reduce the risk of the spread of new variant Omicron.
Briefing the media in Islamabad alongside Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan on Wednesday, he warned that the cases of Omicron have witnessed an increase in the country.
He said the Covid cases increased to 1.8 percent yesterday after remaining 0.7 percent for several weeks.
The Minister said the people should continue to observe Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and avoid visiting crowded places.
In his remarks, SAPM Dr Faisal Sultan clarified that the current COVID-19 vaccines provide protection to the people against severe disease from the new variant.
“The vaccination is important to save our healthcare system from pressure,” the SAPM asserted.
Meanwhile, the major cities have started reporting hundreds of cases of the new variant, which was first detected in the country on December 13 in Karachi. Lahore has a total of 170 Omicron cases and Islamabad 141 to date.
On the other hand, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 1,298,763 on Wednesday after 708 new cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.
This is the highest number of infections reported in a single day in the country since October 14, 2021.
As per the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, 49,673 tests were conducted in last 24 hours while positivity ratio remained 1.80%.
According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached to 28,950 with 5 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.
Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 1,257,600 after another 245 virus recoveries were reported.