ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) revealed on Monday that Punjab was contributing 55 percent to the national Covid-19 mortality rate.
A top level meeting of NCOC held here with the provincial chief secretaries and other relevant officials, the forum expressed concern over the rising Covid-19 positivity ratio.
According to fresh Covid-19 data released by NCOC, Pakistan recorded 2,253 new cases of coronavirus in 24 hours, taking the country’s Covid-19 tally to 607,453.
According to NCOC, the country’s death toll climbed to 13,537 after 29 people succumbed to the deadly disease during the last 24 hours. Most deaths occurred in Punjab with 16 deaths, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) with six deaths, Sindh with five deaths and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) with two Covid-19 deaths.
Out of the 13,537 total reported deaths in the country, Punjab remained on top with 5,769 deaths followed by Sindh 4,458, KP 2,159, ICT 526, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 320, Balochistan 202 and Gilgit Baltistan (GB) 103 deaths.
Since the pandemic outbreak in February 2020, Pakistan has detected a total of 607,453 cases which also included deaths, recovered and under treatment Covid-19 patients. Sindh is on top with 261,411 cases, followed by Punjab 186,659 cases, KP 76,104 cases, ICT 458,081 cases, Balochistan 19,220, AJK 11,017, and GB with 4,961 cases.
Meanwhile, 1,307 patients recovered from the deadly disease in a day taking the total recoveries to 571, 878. According to the NCOC, total active Covid-19 cases across the country were reported to be 22,038.
The highest number of ventilators occupied in the country was found to be in Islamabad with 38 percent occupancy, followed by Lahore at 34 percent, Multan at 28 percent and Peshawar at 23 percent.
The NCOC further reported that the highest number of oxygen bed occupancy in the country was in Gujrat at 59 percent, followed by Peshawar at 45 percent, Islamabad at 36 percent and Lahore at 30 percent.
However, the provinces were appreciated for taking prudent action for disease control through high impact interventions.
The provincial administrations were further advised to take strict administrative actions against those found violating SOPs. Massive crackdown to be ensured against all those who fail to implement NPIs/SOPs, the NCOC stated.
The country’s main body dealing with the pandemic requested the provinces to ensure that SOPs were strictly being followed in transportation services and hotels. Violation could otherwise result in the closure of the tourism sector, it warned.
“Tourists going to GB and AJK as well as other tourist spots are requested to ensure proper SOPs,” the NCOC advised.
“People are requested to ensure the vaccination of senior citizens as the majority of mortality cases reported are from that age group,” the NCOC statement read.
About 44,061 Covid-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, out of which 8,036 were conducted in Sindh; 22,916 in Punjab; 6,931 in KP; 4,773 in Islamabad; 483 in Balochistan; 312 in GB and 610 tests were conducted in AJK.
The NCOC also reported that a total of 9,529,763 tests had been conducted since the outbreak of the virus. There were about 631 hospitals with Covid-19 facilities with 2,329 patients admitted across the country, it added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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