Pakistani president tested positive of COVID-19

ISLAMABAD, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani President Arif Alvi has tested positive of COVID-19, Alvi confirmed in a tweet on Monday.

The president said that he received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine "but antibodies start developing after 2nd dose that was due in a week," advising the public to remain careful amid the virus spread in the country.

Pakistan is currently facing a serious third wave of the virus and the national positivity rate on Monday was recorded over 11 percent whereas individual positivity rate of some of the districts was recorded higher than 20 percent, according to the country's National Command and Operation Center (NCOC).

The country's capital Islamabad on Sunday reported over 700 positive cases for the third time since the outbreak of pandemic in the capital in March last year.

Speaking to media on Sunday night, Special Advisor to Prime Minister on Health Faisal Sultan said that if the public did not follow standard operating procedures the third wave may be the worst attack in the country with positivity rate shooting past the first and second waves.

NCOC chairman Asad Umar said earlier this month that most of the cases in the country are of the variant of virus initially found in Britain.

As of Monday, a total of 659,116 people were tested positive of the disease in the country out of which 14,256 died and 598,197 recovered, according to the country's health ministry website.