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Pakistan has reported 673 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the National Institute of Health said on Saturday.
At least, 20,735 COVID-19 diagnostic tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, of which 673 returned back positive for the infection. It further stated that coronavirus in the country's positivity ratio stood at 3.25 per cent. "COVID-19 Statistics 06 August 2022 Total Tests in Last 24 Hours: 20,735 Positive Cases: 673 Positivity %: 3.25% Deaths: 00 Patients on Critical Care: 169," the NIH tweeted. Meanwhile, the NIH has advised adherence to standard operating procedures (SOPs), including mask wearing and social distancing during Muharram gatherings. Notably, the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had said he was worried that coronavirus case numbers were shooting up, putting more strain on health systems and workers. Experts said that the two sub-variants of the Omicron variant, namely BA.4 and BA.5, are responsible for the spread of COVID-19. They said that these variants have escape mutations that are giving them an edge. According to the World Health Organisation's most recent report, it was behind 52 per cent of cases sequenced in late June, up from 37 per cent in one week. In the United States, it is estimated to be causing around 65 per cent of infections. Experts also said that the sub-variants have also been infecting people who are already vaccinated or have already been infected with COVD-19, but no evidence is available to show if they are causing any severe disease among the vaccinated people, Geo News reported. According to the website, BA.5, which is an omicron variant, is particularly good at evading the immune protection afforded either by vaccination or prior infection.For this reason, "BA5 has a growth advantage over the other sublineages of Omicron that are circulating," Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said as quoted by Geo News. (ANI)
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