Corona kills 67 more people countrywide

By M. Waqar Bhatti

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: The national tally of active COVID-19 cases was Friday recorded 79,992 with 4,745 more people testing positive and 2,095 people recovering during the 24 hours.

According to APP, 67 corona patients have died during the 24 hours out of which 60 were under treatment in hospitals and seven in their respective quarantines or homes, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

Most of deaths occurred in Sindh followed by the Punjab. Out of the total 67 patients who died in the 24 hours, 27 died were on the ventilator.

There were 4,157 infected patients under treatment in critical condition with 107 of them admitted during the 24 hours to various COVID dedicated healthcare facilities of the country.

The national positivity ratio during the 24 hours was recorded 8.18 percent.

The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major cities including Islamabad 44%, Bahawalpur 40%, Peshawar 33% and Multan 29%.

The maximum Oxygen beds (alternative oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per medical requirement of COVID patient) were also occupied in four major cities of Hyderabad 71%, Abbottabad 68%, Karachi 63%, and Rawalpindi 38%.

Around 409 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country, while no affected person was on ventilator in Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Some 57,981 tests were conducted across the country on Thursday, including 16,953 in Sindh, 20,946 in Punjab, 11,357 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 4,247 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 2,424 in Balochistan, 750 in GB, and 1,304 in AJK.

Around 954,711 people have recovered so far across the country making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio.

Since the pandemic broke out, a total of 1,058,405 cases have been detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 26,086, Balochistan 30,967, GB 8,551, ICT 89,569, KP 147,026, Punjab 361,458 and Sindh 394,748.

Around 23,702 deaths have been recorded in the country since the eruption of the contagion.

Around 6,126 people perished in Sindh, 11,141 in Punjab, 4,507 in KP, 809 in ICT, 330 in Balochistan, 150 in GB and 639 in AJK.

A total of 16,336,171 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities across the country.

Waqar Bhatti from Karachi adds: Meanwhile, two more healthcare professionals lost their lives due to COVID-19 in Karachi on Friday, raising the number of fallen medical professionals to 73 in Sindh and 213 in the entire Pakistan, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) said.

“Dr. Nisar Ali Shah, a member of PMA and focal person of PMA Sindh lost the battle in Karachi early Friday morning.

“Today we have lost two healthcare professionals including Dr. Farzana Memon, a gynecologist from Nausheroferoz, who was also under treatment at a local hospital in the city. So far, we have lost 213 healthcare professionals in the country including 73 in Sindh alone”, PMA’s Secretary General Dr. Qaiser Sajjad told The News on Friday.

Urging people to take precautionary measures to get themselves prevented from contracting COVID-19, he said asymptomatic patients were passing the infection on to the healthcare professionals and added that due to COVID-19, dozens of healthcare professionals and workers were placed in isolation.

On the other hand, national data from the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) states that so far 166 deaths among health staff have been reported including 102 doctors, 1 medical student, four nurses and 59 paramedics.

“During the last 24 hours, 26 healthcare professionals and workers contracted COVID-19 in the country. As many as 17,177 healthcare workers have so far been infected with COVID-19, of which 60 percent were doctors, 26 percent were paramedics and only 14 percent were nurses”, an official of the National Health Services said while quoting NCOC data.

Sindh has witnessed the highest number of COVID-19 infections among healthcare providers where so far 3591 doctors, 1261 paramedics and other healthcare staff and 1154 nurses have been infected with COVID-19, as per the official data from NCOC.

“As per official data, Sindh has lost the highest number of healthcare professionals where 60 of them have died due to COVID-19, followed by KP where 44 healthcare workers died, in Punjab 29 healthcare workers lost their lives, 14 in Islamabad, 9 each in Balochistan and AJK while 3 lost their lives in Gilgit Baltistan”, the official of the National Health Services said.