Pakistan reports lowest coronavirus positivity rate in three months

Pakistani women wait for their turn to receive a dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination camp in Karachi on June 3, 2021. (AFP)

• Pakistan’s initially sluggish vaccination rollout has been ramped up in recent weeks with more than 200,000 doses administered most days
• Sindh chief minister orders that government employees who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 would not be paid from next month

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday reported its lowest coronavirus positivity rate in three months at 3.58 percent, latest figures provided by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) showed. 
The last lowest COVID-19 positivity ratio was 3.02 percent on February 28. Friday data showed that 52,859 coronavirus tests were conducted across the country in the last 24 hours, of which 1,893 tests turned out positive, while 83 people lost their lives to COVID-19.
The total number of deaths from COVID-19 stands at 21,105, while the total number of cases is 928,588, with 856,005 people having recovered from the virus so far. Government data showed that 7,953,574 total COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered since February.
Pakistan’s initially sluggish vaccination rollout has been ramped up in recent weeks with more than 200,000 doses administered most days. But the impoverished country has fully vaccinated only around 2.2 million people, a fraction of its 220 million population.
On Thursday, the chief minister of Sindh province ordered that government employees who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 would not be paid from next month.
Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah announced the move after meeting with health officials to discuss the first cases of the delta variant detected in the province, which includes the megacity of Karachi.
“Any government employee who is not vaccinated should have their salary stopped from July,” he tweeted, adding that orders had been given to the finance ministry.
While third wave of infections has begun to stabilize in the country after weeks of restrictions on public gatherings, Sindh province has reported the highest number of cases since the pandemic began.