ISLAMABAD: As many as 2,615 new cases of the coronavirus were reported across the country during the past 24 hours, pushing the national tally of infections to 457,288.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 80 more people succumbed to the infection during this period, taking the death toll from the disease to 9,330.
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A total of 37,206 samples were tested in the previous 24 hours, out of which 2,615 turned out to be positive.
The positivity ratio of fresh Covid-19 cases stands at 7.02 per cent, the NCOC said.
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The total number of active cases stands at 40,553 while 407,405 patients have recuperated from the disease thus far.
Thus far, Sindh has reported a total of 204,103 infections, Punjab 131,428, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 54,948, Balochistan 17,909, Islamabad 36,117, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 7,961, and Gilgit Baltistan 4,822.
On December 19, the National Command Operation Center (NCOC) rolled out its guidelines on how to spend the Christmas holidays and carry out religious rites with caution as to avoid spreading COVID-19.
Read: NCOC counsels caution for Christmas rituals, holidays
It said people must take due measures and not choose to go to crowded spaces and markets for Christmas shopping and underlined the case spike amid the second wave of the global pandemic.
