Pakistan has diagnosed 87 more Covid-19 infections with no fatality but the daily number of test have crossed 6,000 mark during the last 24 hours, showed the statistics released by the National Institute of Health (NIH) on Saturday morning. According to the NIH data, the death toll in the country remained the same at 30,649 whereas the number of total infections now went up to 1,579,704 after adding the fresh 87 cases. During the last 24 hours, 6,011 tests as compared to previous day’s 4,639 were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio stood at 1.45%. The number of patients in critical care stood at 25. China releases genomic data that could help clarify origin of Covid-19 pandemic

In the face of intense pressure and criticism from many in the scientific community, Chinese researchers have released a trove of new genetic data that may offer fresh clues to the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic. They also substantially revised a related study they first posted online 13 months ago to include this evidence, which some scientists say gives more credibility to the thesis that SARS-CoV-2 could have jumped into humans from raccoon dogs or other mammals illegally sold at a Wuhan market.

The Chinese team’s initial preprint argued that the market data, consisting of genetic sequences found in 923 samples collected in or near the market in early 2020, “highly suggests” humans brought the coronavirus there--and made no mention of evidence showing that SARS-CoV-2 susceptible mammals were present. Their updated preprint acknowledges the genetic evidence of the animals and now says the collected samples don’t resolve whether infected animals or humans, or even contaminated food, introduced the virus into the market, where the first cluster of COVID-19 cases surfaced.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP