ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s pandemic response monitor, the National Institute of Health (NIH), on Tuesday said the country had recorded the lowest COVID-19 prevalence since the first wave of coronavirus infections two years ago.
The development comes a month after the Pakistani government scrapped all COVID-related restrictions in view of a major decline in the daily virus case count.
In the last 24 hours, the monitor said, health authorities conducted 21,437 tests, of which 62 turned out to be positive.
“As of today, COVID-19 disease statistics are all-time low since the first wave,” the NIH said on Twitter.
“Alhamdulillah (thank God), no COVID-related death was reported last week,” it said in a separate tweet. “This improvement happened for the first time in over 2 years!”
Pakistan, which is home to roughly 220 million people, rolled out its anti-COVID vaccination campaign in February 2021, prioritizing health care workers and the elderly. It has since expanded its campaign to include the entire eligible population.
Last week, the NIH announced that 80 percent of eligible Pakistani population stood fully vaccinated against COVID-19.