The second wave of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) continues to wreak havoc in the country as 44 more people lost their lives during the last 24 hours, said the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) on Saturday.
With 3,119 new cases – the third consecutive daily rise of over 3,000 infections – the country’s tally has reached 413,191.
With 44 more deaths reported on Friday, the total death toll of the country has risen to 8,303. Pakistan passed the grim milestone of more than 8,000 deaths on December 1.
Punjab witnessed the most deaths as the virus claimed 22 lives across the province. At least 10 people died of coronavirus in KP while Sindh’s death toll rose by eight, Islamabad’s by two, and one patient passed away in AJK. GB and Balochistan reported no COVID-19 deaths.
In the past 24 hours, Sindh recorded the highest number of cases at 1,664 while 540 new infections were reported in Punjab, 419 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 353 in Islamabad, 68 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 59 in Balochistan, and 16 in Gilgit Baltistan.
The number of active cases has climbed to 52,359 with 2,441 patients in critical care. The NCOC data showed 352, 529 people have recovered from Covid-19 across the country so far.
The country’s coronavirus positivity ratio again climbed to 7.59 percent, with the highest positivity ratio observed in Abbotabad at 17.57 percent, according to the data released by the NCOC. The ratio had decreased to around 7.2pc earlier.
After Abbotabad, the second highest positivity ratio was observed in Rawalpindi at 15.26 percent, followed by Karachi at 14.31 percent and Hyderabad at 12.13 percent.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir has the highest positivity ratio among different federating units at 11.24 percent, followed by Sindh at 10.74 percent, Balochistan at 10.46 percent, KP at 9.68 percent, Punjab at 4.15 percent and Gilgit-Baltistan at 3.92 percent.
Other urban centres of the country reported their positivity ratio as: Lahore 6.5 percent, Faisalabad 2.07 percent, Multan 2.06 percent, Peshawar 10.63 percent, Quetta 6.42 percent and Muzaffarabad 10.61 percent.
Meanwhile, 202 out of 309 patients were put on ventilators in different medical facilities across Pakistan on Saturday. The statistics of the NCOC stated that 202 Covid-19 patients are on ventilators in three provincial capitals including 84 in Punjab’s capital Lahore, 73 in Sindh’s capital Karachi and 45 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) capital Peshawar.
Moreover, 45 patients were put on ventilators in Multan, 20 in Rawalpindi and 39 in Islamabad. No patient from Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) is on the ventilator, the NCOC said.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) has sealed 13 laboratories and collection centres and suspended services of another for conducting diagnostic tests of Covid-19 against rules and regulations.
According to a spokesperson of PHC Amir Waqas, due to the ongoing second wave of the coronavirus, the PHC had carried out special inspections of 115 laboratories and collection centres in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Sargodha, Sialkot and Sahiwal. Out of these, seven centres of Rawalpindi and six in Multan were closed down.
