Lahore/Quetta/Karachi/Peshawar (Staff Report/Agencies): The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 1,402,070 on Friday after 8,183 new cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.
This is the highest number of daily cases in Pakistan since the pandemic began in February 2020.
Overall 535,965 cases were confirmed in Sindh, 471,925 in Punjab, 189,300 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 34,187 in Balochistan, 123,648 in Islamabad, 10,580 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 36,465 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
As per the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, 68,624 tests were conducted in last 24 hours while positivity ratio remained 11.92%.
According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached to 29,192 with 30 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.
Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 1,274,657 after another 1,786 virus recoveries were reported.
Meanwhile, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Thursday stated that COVID-19 boosters increase protection against death from the Omicron variant to 95% in people aged 50 or over.
The agency said that around six months after the second dose of any of the COVID-19 vaccines, protection against death with Omicron was around 60% in those aged 50 and over.
However, this increased to around 95% two weeks after receiving a booster vaccine dose.
The UKHSA added that data continued to show high levels of protection against hospitalisation from the booster. Effectiveness against hospitalisation was around 90% for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, dropping to 75% 10-14 weeks after the booster.
It is pertinent to mention that the global coronavirus cases have reportedly surpassed 367,009 million and death toll tops 5,657,166.
