Pakistan's COVID-19 positivity ratio jumps to over 10 per cent

Pakistan's COVID-19 positivity ratio jumped to over 10 per cent on Sunday, a day after the country reported the highest number of deaths due to the novel coronavirus.

As many as 5,611 fresh infections were reported in the last 24 hours, while 118 people succumbed to the virus in the same period, ARY News reported citing the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

The country's overall positivity ratio of new cases has reached 10.17 per cent, according to the NCOC. The overall COVID-19 caseload has reached 7,95,627 while the death toll has risen to 17,117.

Amid growing cases of COVID-19 across the country, the federal government on Saturday warned that it would only wait for a week and if the situation did not improve, then imposing a complete lockdown would be its key option to save the people's lives, Dawn reported.

"We make it possible to keep things going amid the pandemic because when it comes to strict measures, the daily wage earners and poor segments of society are hit hard. Secondly, traders who make money most in this month [Ramazan]. So we appeal to the traders and the people to please take care and follow the guidelines. Ultimately if the people's lives come under threat, we would have to go for drastic measures, including complete lockdown," said Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain at a press conference at the Governor House.

Smart lockdowns have been imposed in several areas of the country in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

( With inputs from ANI )