On Friday, she took to her Instagram stories to share the news with her followers. Farooq mentioned that luckily, she hadn’t come in contact with a lot of people the day her symptoms started showing. “My symptoms were really bad and the past few days have been horrible — the fever and the body aches are unbearable,” she wrote, adding that she will be spending her Eid in isolation.

After she shared her plans of following the safety protocol, she requested her followers to remember her in their prayers.

Farooq also urged them to take precautions this Eid for their loved ones’ sake. “Better to have a safe Eid than a sorry Eid,” she concluded and sent them her love.

On Tuesday, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) issued new guidelines for people to practice this Eidul Azha to curb the resurgence of Covid-19 in the country. They stated that Eid prayers should be organised in open spaces “under stringent Covid protocols”.

The NCOC further instructed people to refrain from shaking hands and hugging each other — as per the Eid ritual — to avoid the chances of contracting the disease. As for the qurbani [sacrifice] itself, the guidelines recommended people to opt for “central and collective *qurbani”,* while adhering to Covid-19 SOPs.

The US announced an agreement with Pfizer and BioNTech for 105 million doses of Covid vaccine for Americans this fall

 KARACHI: The Sindh Government Children Hospital North Karachi that used to serve more than 2,000 children of Central district on a daily basis has been closed without disclosing reasons behind the decision, leaving both patients and its staff members uncertain about its future.

The workers and area people are not sure about the reason behind the closure of the hospital run by the provincial government relying only on speculations that the health facility was closed due to non-payment of salaries of the staff and provision of funds for other operational tasks.

The situation came to light when the district Central chapter of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) held a demonstration outside the hospital with staff members of the health facility.

Karachi JI chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman led the demonstration. He condemned the Sindh government over its “incompetence and corruption” that resulted in the closure of a hospital that used to provide health facilities to over 2,500 children a day.

“Unfortunately the staff members of the hospital have not been paid for the past seven months by the Sindh government, resulting in closure of the hospital,” he said. “No one knows that how many precious lives could have been saved if this hospital had remained operational. Who’s responsible if even a single life is lost due to the closure of this hospital — no one but the Sindh government of the Pakistan Peoples Party.”

He said every single minister of the Sindh government claimed its success mainly in health sector showing huge spending of the budget in the particular sector. The PPP government, he alleged, in fact misled the people of Sindh and Karachi because the budget allocated for the health sector was never spent transparently and most of the funds were misappropriated every fiscal year.

JI leader Syed Wajih Hassan told the protesters that the Sindh government had allocated Rs172 billion for the health department in its annual budget but it could not pay for staffs’ salaries and medicines of the hospital.

Police had said two members of the National Resistance Front (NRF) had been arrested in connection with killing seven vaccinators on February 24 in the northern province of Kunduz.

The NRF were the last group to hold out against the Taliban takeover last year, retreating to the Panjshir Valley, which eventually fell in September, weeks after the former government forces capitulated.

The health workers were killed in separate attacks while on a house-to-house vaccine campaign.

“The arrested men have confessed to their crime and said they shot the polio vaccinators after receiving orders from their leaders from the Resistance Front in the province,” Kunduz police spokesman Qari Obaidullah Abedi had said.

According to the spokesman, the arrested men also confessed that “they were paid” for the murders.

NRF rejected the accusations as “Taliban propaganda”. “The National Resistance Front condemns the perpetrators of this attack and we strongly believe it was conducted by the Taliban or one of their terrorist partners,” Ali Nazary, spokesman for the NRF, said.

The NRF is led by the son of legendary late anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated by Al Qaeda in 2001.

In total, eight polio vaccinators were killed on February 24 — seven in Kunduz and one in the neighbouring province of Takhar.

Polio teams in Afghanistan were frequently targeted by insurgent groups until the Taliban’s takeover in August. Since then, the Islamists have said they want to work with the United Nations to stamp out the disease.

In the past, polio vaccination drives in Afghanistan — and neighbouring Pakistan — were accused of being fronts for spying, while some clerics said the vaccine was a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic.

The workers were gunned down in three separate locations within hours in a “coordinated attack”, Nangarhar provincial police spokesman Farid Khan said.

“This is the work of the Taliban, targeting health workers to deprive people of polio vaccines,” he said.

Health ministry spokesman Osman Taheri confirmed the attacks. The Taliban denied responsibility.

Polio has been eradicated across the world apart from Afghanistan and Pakistan, where distrust of vaccines and eradication campaigns is rife.

The Taliban and religious leaders often tell communities that vaccines are a Western conspiracy aimed at sterilising Muslim children, and they also suspect immunisation drives are used to spy on militant activities.

Officials say the Taliban do not allow door-to-door vaccination campaigns in areas they control.

Tuesday saw five vaccine workers killed and one wounded in a spate of attacks across Nangarhar, the local government said. Three were also wounded in the provincial capital, Jalalabad.

The inoculation drive in the province has now been halted, a health official told AFP.

“These were all targeted attacks against polio vaccinators, and for now we have stopped all polio vaccination drives in Nangarhar province,” the official said, asking not to be named.

A top United Nations official, Ramiz Alakbarov, condemned Tuesday's attacks.

“Depriving children from an assurance of a healthy life is inhumane,” Alakbarov, the UN Secretary General's Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, said on Twitter. "Senseless violence must stop now, those responsible must be investigated and brought to justice.”

The country has faced a devastating wave of targeted attacks on politicians, activists and journalists which the Afghan government and United States have blamed on the Taliban, who routinely deny responsibility.

“We have reached a situation where systematically employees of demining, doctor, nurse, vaccinator, human rights defenders and anyone seeking to save our lives and our children are killed,” said Shaharzad Akbar, the head of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission.

“There is neither an effective prevention mechanism nor a punishment for the perpetrators.”

Last week 10 people working for the HALO Trust mine-clearing organisation were shot dead in northern Afghanistan.

The government said the Taliban were behind the attack, but the UK-based charity said the local militants actually stepped in to help.

The Taliban have made huge gains across Afghanistan as the United States prepares to pull out the last of its troops from the country by September after 20 years of war — even as peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have stalled.

An official of the Ukrainian parliament, meanwhile, said at least 71 children have been killed and more than 100 wounded in Ukraine since Russia launched the war.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said there was “no progress” even on a 24-hour ceasefire, after talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Turkey, although the latter said Moscow would keep talking.

Russian forces on Thur­sday rolled their armoured vehicles up to the northeastern edge of Kyiv, a team of journalists saw, edging closer in their attempts to encircle the Ukrainian capital.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said half the population had fled, adding: “Kyiv has been transformed into a fortress. Every street, every building, every checkpoint has been fortified.”

The UN estimates more than 2.3 million refugees have left Ukraine since the start of the invasion, which prompted unprecedented Western sanctions against Moscow along with a cultural and sporting boycott.

At least 35,000 civilians were evacuated from the cities of Sumy, Enerhodar and areas around Kyiv on Wednesday, President Volo­dy­myr Zelensky said, with three more routes set to open up, including out of the southern port city of Mariupol.

The children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol was attacked on Wednesday in what Zelensky described as a Russian “war crime”, and which sparked global outrage. Local officials said on Thur­sday that at least three people were killed in the attack, including a young girl.

Situation in Mariupol

Ten days of constant attacks on Mariupol have already left more than 1,200 civilians dead, according to the mayor, and created what aid agencies call an “apocalyptic” situation, with no water, power or heat.

Zelensky shared footage on Wednesday of massive destruction at the hospital, saying the “direct strike by Russian troops” had left children under the wreckage.

Officials had previously said 17 people were injured, including doctors.

The White House slammed the “barbaric” use of force against civilians, while EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell echoed Zelensky in calling it a “heinous war crime”.

Russia’s foreign ministry did not deny the attack but accused Ukrainian “nationalist battalions” of using the hospital to set up firing positions after moving out staff and patients.

Lavrov reiterated the claim on Thursday, saying it was a military base for members of the radical Azov Battalion.

Asked by a Turkish reporter if Russia was planning to attack other nations, Lavrov replied “we don’t plan to attack other countries” and claimed “we did not attack Ukraine”.

He insisted that the Russian president launched the operation as the situation in Ukraine “posed a direct threat to the Russian Federation”.

On the northeastern edge of Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers described a night of heavy battles for control of the main highway leading into the capital. Journalists witnessed missile strikes in Velkya Dymerka, a largely deserted village just outside Kyiv’s city limits.

Ukrainian forces only had a minimal presence in the village, which locals said witnessed heavy fighting overnight.

“It’s frightening, but what can you do, there is nowhere to really run or hide. We live here,” said Vasyl Popov, a 38-year-old advertising sal­es­man. In the nearby villages, there were few cars on the road and they drove with ut­m­ost caution in what was now frontline territory.

The procedure raised hopes that advances in cross-species organ donation could one day solve the chronic shortage of human organs available for donation, and the team behind the operation say they still remain optimistic about its future success.

David Bennett, 57, received his transplant on Jan 7 and passed away on March 8, the University of Maryland Medical System said in a statement.

“His condition began deteriorating several days ago. After it became clear that he would not recover, he was given compassionate palliative care. He was able to communicate with his family during his final hours,” the statement said.

Following surgery, the transplanted heart had performed very well for several weeks without any signs of rejection, the hospital added.

In the time after his surgery, Bennett spent time with family, participated in physical therapy, watched the Super Bowl and spoke often about wanting to go home to see his dog Lucky.

“He proved to be a brave and noble patient who fought all the way to the end. We extend our sincerest condolences to his family,” said Bartley Griffith, the surgeon who led the procedure.

Bennett came to the hospital in the eastern US state of Maryland in October 2021. He was bedridden and placed on emergency life support machine.

He had been deemed ineligible for human transplant — a decision that is often taken when the recipient has very poor underlying health.

A total of 6,001,585 people have succumbed to the virus, AFP counted at 0900 GMT.

The milestone comes as the number of infections and deaths continue to plummet in most regions of the world, except in Asia, where Hong Kong is suffering its worst-ever outbreak, and Oceania, where New Zealand has recorded a jump in cases. 

Average global daily deaths over the past seven days have fallen to 7,170, down 18% in a week, continuing a trend seen since the peak of the Omicron wave in mid-February despite many countries relaxing restrictions.

The United States has recorded 960,311 deaths from the coronavirus, followed by Brazil on 652,341 and India on 515,102.

While much of the world is learning to live with the disease, China remains committed to stamping it out and has instructed Hong Kong to also pursue a zero-tolerance approach.

Hong Kong has launched controversial plans to test all 7.4 million residents and build a network of isolation camps. The number of weekly infections in the city has doubled in a week to 290,987 while the number of deaths has more than tripled to 1,543.

AFP's tally is based on COVID-19 deaths reported by national health authorities.

The World Health Organization believes that the real figure could be two to three times higher.

Australia, playing its first Test in Pakistan since 1998, reached 449-7 at stumps in its first innings on day 4 on a grassless wicket with Marnus Labuschagne (90) and Steve Smith (78) scoring half-centuries.

Cameroon Green (48) showed himself to be a Test all-rounder by spending more than two hours at the crease, facing 109 balls.

Mitchell Starc, who bats at number eight, spent almost the last hour and was not out on 12 with skipper Pat Cummins not out on 4 as stumps were drawn three overs before scheduled because of bad light.

Pakistan had declared its first innings at 476-4 late on day 2 on the back of big centuries from Azhar Ali (185) and Imam-ul-Haq (157).

"There's not a great deal of pace and bounce in [the wicket] for the seamers, that's for sure,” Smith said. “I thought it would break up a little bit more and probably turn a bit more from the start, but it probably hasn't done so.”

Opening batter Usman Khawaja narrowly missed out on a century in the country of his birth on Sunday when he was dismissed for 97, but shared a rapid 156-run opening wicket stand with David Warner, who made 68.

On a docile wicket where there was no appreciable turn for the spinners, left-arm spinner Nauman Ali grabbed 4-107 mainly because Australia's batters went for extravagant shots.

Labuschagne was the second Australian batsman to fall in the 90s when he was caught in the slip in Shaheen Afridi's (1-80) third over with the new ball after a wet outfield following overnight rain prevented any play in the first session.

Labuschagne hit 12 boundaries in his knock but attempted a drive off a wide delivery from Afridi as Abdullah Shafique grabbed a well-judged low catch in the lone slip.

Travis Head (8) was a rare batsman to fail in a batter-dominated Test match when he edged Nauman to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan while going for a cut shot as Pakistan claimed two wickets in the mid-session.

Green showed a lot of determination in his 81-run stand with Smith before Nauman induced false strokes from both batsmen by bowling consistently outside the leg stump line in the last session.

Green smashed two of his three boundaries in Nauman's one over but top-edged a sweep to short fine leg. Smith also went for a similar shot and was caught by Rizwan down the leg side.

Smith, who hasn't scored a Test century since the 2019 Ashes, batted for nearly five hours, hitting eight fours during his 196-ball knock before he was nicely set up by Nauman to go for an over-ambitious shot.

"Pretty annoying, I got a bit greedy with the field they had set,” Smith said on missing out on his 100. "Disappointed to have worked pretty hard and got myself in a nice position to go on and get a big score."

 Veteran film, TV and stage actor and director Masood Akhtar passed away today (March 5) in Lahore. The 82-year-old who was awarded the Pride of Performance in 2005 had been hospitalised for past two months after his health deteriorated.

Sources close to Akhtar told Images that the actor passed away due to lung cancer. His funeral will be held at 4pm today in Usman Park, Lahore. The actor is to be laid to rest in Miani Sahib graveyard. He leaves a widow and two daughters.

The actor was born in Sahiwal and has made huge contribution to the art of acting by performing in many movies, TV plays and theatre productions.

He worked in around 135 films ⁠— 78 Urdu, 51 Punjabi, three double version and two Pashto, according to actor Khalid Moeen. Akhtar is the pioneer of starting stage drama at Alhamra Arts Council. One of his early plays, Paisa Bolta Hai, was staged at Alhamra in the 1970s and it earned him immense popularity.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has expressed his condolences over Akhtar's demise. Calling him a versatile actor, the CM said Akhtar's memorable works are still appreciated today.

Condolences pour in

Actor Ahsan Khan took to Instagram to mourn Akhtar's loss.

Actor Resham shared photos with the late actor and wrote, "Masood Akhtar was a very kind person whom I spent a lot of time with. When I started out, I had gotten small roles on TV and got the chance to work with him [Akhtar] and I count it as a blessing."