Pakistan reports 23 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reported 24 fresh Covid-19 cases during the last 24 hours, ARY News reported on Saturday, quoting the National Institute of Health (NIH).

In a statement, the National Institute of Health (NIH) stated that at least 24 new Covid-19 cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the national tally to 1,575,935.

According to the data, the coronavirus positivity rate stood at 0.59 percent, while 22 patients were admitted to several hospitals across the country.

Furthermore, the total number of patients who have recovered from the coronavirus in the country has reached 1,538,689. Moreover, the total number of deaths due to the virus in Pakistan has reached 30,638.

Earlier in January, the Sindh Health Department confirmed the presence of XBB and XBB-1 sub-variants of the Omicron variant in Karachi.

Karachi detected six cases of the new Covid-19 variant, XBB and XBB-1, the health department said in a statement. However, they confirmed that the South Asian country was still safe from the highly infectious variant – BF.

It is pertinent to mention here that Sindh was making Covid-19 tests for visitors from China mandatory following an explosion in cases in China.

According to the notification issued by the Sindh health department, in view of prevailing global and regional disease trends, Sindh decided to screen all passengers coming from China to Karachi airport.

The passengers testing positive for Covid-19 will be quarantined, while passengers with the tested result of “false” in antigen, will undergo PCR tests, the notification read.