Karachi: Karachi’s positivity ratio has increased from 3.27% to 5.66% in first week of March.
After coronavirus restrictions were relaxed, the COVID-19 positivity ratio in Sindh has seen a sharp rise in the first week of March.
Hyderabad has reported the highest positivity ratio. The city’s positivity ratio has shot up from 2.47% to 8.26% in the first week of the month, the Sindh Health Department said.
The ratio measures how many people tested for coronavirus actually had the virus (tested positive) as a percentage of total tests conducted.
Meanwhile, the positivity ratio in other districts of Sindh has risen from 1.20% to 1.80%.
The health department said that in the last 24 hours, the province-wide positivity ratio stood at an average 4.58%.
It said that on January 18, Sindh’s positivity ratio had stood at 4.78%. It added that from January 18-March 7, the positivity ratio had fallen below 4%.
The rising positivity ratio may be a cause of concern for the government as the National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) has announced the loosening of some of the coronavirus restrictions that it earlier put in place.
The decisions could be reviewed again in view of increased disease prevalence, whenever deemed necessary, the NCOC had said last month.
Earlier, Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar had said that Pakistan will likely get 17 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine by March.