Pakistan reports single day-highest COVID toll in five month as crisis worsens

Islamabad [Pakistan], December 8 : Pakistan coronavirus death toll rose by 89 in 24 hours for the first time in five months as the country struggles to contain the second wave of the pandemic, Geo News reported.
Both Punjab and Sindh recorded 41 new deaths. Meanwhile, six people have died due to the virus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Balochistan and Pakistan occupied Gilgit Baltistan reported no deaths in the past 24 hours, Geo News reported. The death toll in the country has reached 8,487.
Pakistan recorded 2,885 new coronavirus infections, taking the caseload in the country to 423,179. At present, there are 44,218 active cases in the country. At least 2,486 patients are under critical care with 336 on ventilators.
The case positivity rate has shot up to 8.58 per cent with the highest COVID-19 prevalence observed in Karachi as 21.80 per cent of the PCR tests conducted in the past 24 hours detected SARS-CoV-2, followed by 18.31 per cent in Mirpur and 16 per cent in Muzaffarabad.
With the COVID-19 pandemic progressively getting worse in Pakistan, the government has placed fresh restrictions across the country to prevent the spread of the virus during its second wave.
Following recommendations by the National Command Operation Center (NCOC), the federal government has made face masks mandatory in public spaces, limited large public gatherings to 300, banned indoor weddings, closed shrines, cinemas, and theatres, and instructed public and private offices to adopt work-from-home policy and 50 per cent occupancy.
The federal government also announced that educational institutes will remain closed from November 26 to January 10.