COVID-19 casualties hit four-month high as 59 die in one day

ISLAMABAD: As the second wave of coronavirus is hitting the country hard, Pakistan witnessed the highest single-day death toll in four months on Saturday last with 59 more fatalities, according to the data provided by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Sunday.
According to the NCOC, the Covid-19 claimed 59 more lives across the country during the last twenty-four hours, lifting the death toll from the disease to 7,662.
As many as 38,983 samples were tested during the past 24 hours, out of which 2,665 turned out to be positive, lifting up the Covid-19 positivity rate at 6.8 percent. The number of active Covid-19 cases has increased to 36,683. A total of 374,173 confirmed cases have been reported while 329,828 people have recovered so far. A total of 653 patients are said to be in critical condition.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus began, Sindh has reported 162,221, Punjab 114,010, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 44097, Balochistan 16,744, Islamabad 26,569, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 6,000 and Gilgit Baltistan has reported 4,526 cases.
Taking to Twitter, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, who heads the NCOC, said: “More than 50 coronavirus deaths have been reported across the country for the first time after a gap of four months.”
He stressed the need for the nation to follow SOPs to curb the spread of the second wave so that not only people’s lives but their livelihoods are saved as well.
He said the number of Covid-19 patients on ventilators has gone up over the last 15 days. He tweeted that Peshawar witnessed a 200 percent increase in Covid-19 patients struggling for life on ventilators, while this ratio has increased by 200 percent in Multan, 148 percent in Karachi, 114 percent in Lahore, and 65 percent in Islamabad. He said that 70 percent of ventilators earmarked for Covid-19 patients in Multan and Islamabad are occupied.
Without pointing out opposition parties’ Peshawar public gathering slated for Sunday, he said: “For political leaders to send a message that corona is not a threat is threatening lives.”
In Punjab, a total of 22 fatalities from the coronavirus were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the provincial death toll to 2,848. According to a spokesperson for the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, as many as 553 new cases of Covid-19 surfaced, pushing the total number of infections thus far reported across the province to 114,010. Of the total fresh cases, 229 were detected in Lahore and 70 in Rawalpindi.
In Balochistan, 45 new infections were reported on Sunday. The number of active cases of Covid-19 has increased to 593 in the province, the health department said in a statement.
Total death count stands at 164 as three more patients succumbed to the disease in the province. The tally of overall cases of the disease in the province has reached 16,789 with 45 new cases as health officials tested 697 samples in 24 hours.
Moreover, in academic institutions 17 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours, soaring total cases in schools and colleges in the province to 945, according to the health department. Overall recoveries have reached 16,008 as 18 more patients of the novel coronavirus recovered in Balochistan. – TLTP