ISLAMABAD: The Covid-19 pandemic claimed 11 more lives in Pakistan during the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 28,280.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 663 more people got infected with the viral disease, lifting the nationwide tally of confirmed infections to 1,265,047.

A total of 39,902 samples were tested, out of which 663 turned out to be positive, showing an infection rate of 1.66 per cent as compared to yesterday’s 1.60%. At present, there are 1,913 critical patients in hospitals across the country.

As many as 1,019 people have recovered from the pandemic during the last 24 hours, overall 1,210,897 people have regained their health so far.

On Saturday, Pakistan received 2.4 million more doses of Pfizer vaccine via the COVAX global distribution programme.

Last week, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had announced to end a mandatory day-off of businesses across the country besides also easing other COVID restrictions in the wake of declining virus cases and improved vaccination.

After an NCOC meeting, it was announced that the fresh non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) including abolishing a mandatory day off in a week would remain applicable between October 16 to 31.