ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), the Pakistani federal government’s central body dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, said on Friday the coronavirus positivity rate had almost reached 20 percent in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Pakistan recorded more than 3,000 new coronavirus cases in a day on each of the last three days as a second wave of the epidemic has gathered momentum, data released on Friday showed, saying the national positivity rate was 7.20 percent.

“Highest positivity ratio observed in Peshawar 19.65 % followed by Karachi 17.73 and Hyderabad 16.32 %,” an NCOC statement said. “2,112 Covid patients are in critical condition across Pakistan and the number of critical patients is rising fast.”

“Our main responsibility is public safety and health and all necessary measures as passed through various guidelines and instructions issued time to time by health ministry must be ensured,” NCOC chief and planning minister Asad Umar was quoted as saying. “Continuous monitoring and anticipation of likely pattern/ disease prevalence is most important as only this will help us in required response for Covid Control efforts.”

After a peak of over 6,800 daily infections in June, the number fell to a low of 213 in August, and remained below 700 for most of the last three months.

Earlier this month, the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan ruled out a complete lockdown and decided to continue the “smart lockdown” policy with strict implementation of safety guidelines given by the NCOC.

The country’s last comprehensive lockdown was lifted in May.