The country reported 406 fresh cases of coronavirus in a single day, National Institute of Health, Islamabad (NIH) data showed Sunday morning as quoted by Geo News.

The new infections were detected after diagnostic tests on 14,437 samples. This took Pakistan's COVID-19 positivity to 2.81%. Moreover, two people suffering from coronavirus died during the last 24 hours, the news channel reported.

Former DG Health and currently Lead Strategic Adviser of CDC-USA in Pakistan Rana Muhammad Safdar told Geo News that cases and positivity rates have more than doubled over the previous week, indicating rapid transmission.

He said that the rise is more marked in Karachi — with 21.71% COVID-19 positivity, and Islamabad — with 3.45% positivity, due to better testing and reporting but the risk is likely to be widespread.

According to Safdar, the rise in number of hospitalisations and admission of patients in ICUs may become evident from the next week.