In the last 24-hours, 961 new cases of coronavirus have been reported. It is the fifth day in a row that the national positivity rate remained below 5 per cent.
More than two-thirds of new cases were reported in Sindh (373 cases) and Punjab (302 cases). In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 132 new cases were reported; 97 new cases in Islamabad; 32 cases in Gilgit Baltistan; 15 cases in Azad Jammu and Kashmir; and 10 cases Balochistan.
The spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid-19 led many to fear Pakistan would face a damaging fifth wave, since the variant was first detected in Karachi in late December. In January, Pakistan reported the highest record of Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, with 7,678 new cases reported in just one 24-hour period - the majority of these cases were in Sindh. At that time, the national positivity rate hovered around 13 per cent.
However, in February the rate of Covid-19 cases has decreased significantly. Vaccination efforts across the country have been largely successful. The NCOC aims to fully vaccination at least 72 per cent of the vaccine-eligible population by March, around 110 million people. To date, over 94 million eligible Pakistanis have been fully vaccinated.