Pakistan's coronavirus fatalities have crossed the 10,000-mark in the past 24 hours after 55 more infected patients succumbed to the disease, taking the overall death toll to 10,047, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Wednesday.

Most deaths occurred in the Punjab province followed by Sindh, Xinhua news agency quoted the centre, which monitors and devises plans to curb the pandemic in the country, as saying.

The NCOC said that 2,155 people tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, with the national positivity ratio recorded at 5.92 per cent.

Pakistan has reported a total of 477,240 confirmed cases, with 430,113 recoveries.

Currently, 2,219 patients are in critical condition and the number is rising fast, the NCOC said.

Sindh province said on Tuesday that the new COVID-19 strain, first found in Britain, has been detected in two quarantined passengers who returned from the UK.

However, the NCOC said that the virus detected in the arrivals from Britain are still being analysed in selected laboratories, adding that three people may have been infected based on preliminary analysis.

The final results are yet to be confirmed with further analysis, which will take a few more days to complete.

The NCOC said that in order to bar the new, more transmissible coronavirus variant from entering Pakistan, the government has taken stricter measures including restricting travel from Britain.

(IANS)