Lahore/Quetta/Karachi/Peshawar (Staff Report/Agencies): The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 1,498,676 on Saturday after 1,983 new cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.
This is for the first time since January 10 that below 2,000 infections have been reported in a single day.
Overall 563,314 cases were confirmed in Sindh, 498,322 in Punjab, 214,277 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 35,206 in Balochistan, 133,702 in Islamabad, 11,320 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 42,535 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
As per the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, 47,780 tests were conducted in last 24 hours while positivity ratio remained 4.15%.
According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached to 29,976 with 26 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.
Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 1,399,000 after another 2,782 virus recoveries were reported.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday said that six African countries including Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia would be the first on the continent to receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines.
The technology transfer project, launched last year, aims to help low- and middle-income countries manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards.
mRNA is the advanced technology used by companies such as Pfizer-BioNTech, and Moderna for their COVID-19 shots.
It is pertinent to mention that the global coronavirus cases have reportedly surpassed 422,268 million and death toll tops 5,893,439.