COVID-19 claims 88 lives, infects 4,007 more people

ISLAMABAD: The national tally on Saturday of total active COVID-19 cases recorded 63,436 with 4,007 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 3,712 people recovered from the disease during the last 24 hours.

Eighty eight corona patients have died during past 24 hours, 80 of whom were under treatment in hospital and eight out of the hospital in their respective quarantines or homes, according to the latest update issued by the National command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

During the past 24 hours, most of the deaths have occurred in the Punjab followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Out of the total 88 deaths occurred in the last 24 hours 40 of them had died who were under treatment on ventilators.

There were 4,412 Covid infected patients under treatment in critical care in various Covid dedicated healthcare facilities in past 24 hours.

The National Covid positivity ratio during past 24 hours was recorded 6.43 percent.

It may be mentioned here that the Covid positivity ratio was the percentage of actual positive cases appearing in every 100 tests performed to identify infected individuals.

According to John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the percent positive will be high if the number of positive tests is too high, or if the number of total tests is too low. A higher percent positive suggests higher transmission and that there are likely more people with coronavirus in the community who haven’t been tested yet.

The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Lahore 51 percent, Multan 70 percent, Bahawalpur 42 percent and Peshawar 33 percent.

The maximum Oxygen beds (alternate oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per medical requirement of COVID patient) was also occupied in four major areas of Gujranwala 45 percent, Swabi 48 percent, Peshawar 41 percent and Multan 62 percent.

Around 536 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no COVID affected person was on ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan.

Some 62,238 tests were conducted across the country on Friday, including 24,299 in Sindh, 23,152 in Punjab, 8,471 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 3,661 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,455 in Balochistan, 387 in GB, and 813 in AJK.

Around 813,855 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients.

Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 897,468 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 18,651, Balochistan 24,413, GB 5,471, ICT 80,156, KP 129,013, Punjab 333,057 and Sindh 306,707.

About 20,177 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion. Around 4,891 have perished in Sindh among 21 of them died in hospital and one out of hospital on Friday.

9,739 in Punjab had died with 35 deaths occurred in past 24 hours. 30 of them in the hospital and five out of hospital.

3,900 in KP where 23 of them died in hospital and two out of hospital on Friday, 744 in ICT among three of them died in the hospital on Friday, 270 in Balochistan, 107 in GB and 526 in AJK among three of them succumbed to the deadly virus on Friday.

A total of 12,717,235 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Some 4,819 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.