As the fifth wave of the coronavirus surges through the country, due to the highly-transmissible Omicron variant, major cities in Pakistan have seen an uptick in test positive ratio, which is the percentage of tests that came back positive for COVID-19 out of the total conducted.
In 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) advised governments that before reopening, rates of positivity should remain at 5% or below for at least 14 days. The Pakistan government has also directed curbs in cities that report positivity rates over 10%.
Karachi’s positivity ratio was recorded at 40.91% as 1,542 cases were recorded after a total of 3,769 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Peshawar saw 454 new cases, taking the positivity ratio to 27.99%.
COVID-19 situation in cities across Pakistan
District | COVID-19 lab tests in 24 hours | Positive cases in 24 hours | Positivity percentage |
Mirpur | 288 | 21 | 7.29% |
Muzaffarabad | 517 | 139 | 26.89% |
Quetta | 481 | 40 | 8.32% |
Diamer | 69 | 6 | 8.70% |
Gilgit | 91 | 9 | 9.89% |
Skardu | 103 | 1 | 0.97% |
Islamabad | 6,468 | 685 | 10.59% |
Abbottabad | 754 | 80 | 10.61% |
Bannu | 268 | 15 | 5.60% |
Mardan | 429 | 54 | 12.59% |
Nowshera | 248 | 27 | 10.89% |
Peshawar | 1,622 | 454 | 27.99% |
Swabi | 734 | 43 | 5.86% |
Swat | 816 | 25 | 3.06% |
Bahawalpur | 720 | 48 | 6.67% |
Faisalabad | 736 | 34 | 4.62% |
Gujranwala | 1,289 | 12 | 0.93% |
Gujrat | 1,093 | 5 | 0.46% |
Jhelum | 295 | 1 | 0.34% |
Lahore | 8,383 | 947 | 11.30% |
Multan | 456 | 24 | 5.26% |
Rawalpindi | 2,674 | 350 | 13.09% |
Sargodha | 209 | 17 | 8.13% |
Hyderabad | 324 | 86 | 26.54% |
Karachi | 3,769 | 1,542 | 40.91% |