Fatalities from Covid-19 put at eight in Nowshera as another woman dies

NOWSHERA: Another woman died of coronavirus on Sunday, taking the fatalities toll to eight in the Nowshera district, an official said.

Deputy Commissioner Shahid Ali Khan told the media that Khatoon Begum, 55, the wife of Hazrat Amin, a resident of Barh Masjid, Khud Dheri, showed the coronavirus symptoms. She was a diabetic as well. The official said the woman was shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar on May 1 after she complained of cough and difficulty in respiration. She was put on a ventilator but lost life to the Covid-19.

The woman was laid to rest at her ancestral graveyard as per the World Health Organisation protocols. The swabs of six other family members were taken and sent for examination. The area the woman hailed from was sealed off as precautionary measures.

The official said a total of 34 swabs of suspected patients were sent to the coronavirus rests from all over the district on Sunday. He said six of them tested positive for the viral disease. Those confirmed positive for Covid-19 included Bilal Zahid of Nowshera Kalaan, Waqar Ahmad of Risalpur, Habibur Rehman and Tahir Lateef of Banda Nabi and Sohail Shah and Rehmat Khan of Khairabad.

The deputy commissioner said the number of the Covid-19 patients in the district had reached 76 with these fresh cases. He said the patient, Rehmat Khan, who had tested positive in Peshawar and was being kept at an isolation ward there, fled from the facility and reached his home in Nowshera.

The people of the area protested at that as his action had endangered the lives of his fellow villagers. The Rescue 1122 staff picked him up and shifted him to the Qazi Medical Complex (QMC) for treatment. The official said the son of the patient, tried to whisk away his father from the QMC. He said guards were deployed to keep the patient at the hospital for ensuring his treatment. His son was taken into custody.

Shahid Ali Khan said that two people – Asif Ali and Muhammad Nauman- who had returned from the United Arab Emirates and had been quarantined at the Government College of Technology at Khander, had tested negative for Covid-19 and allowed to go home. Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner of Pabbi Beenish Iqbal said a 65-year-old woman, Qadar Jana of Dag Behsud who had died of Covid-19, was laid to by the relatives without following the prescribed protocols.

The official said the relatives of the deceased took the body of the woman by force from the Rescue 1122 and Tehsil Municipal Administration staff offered her funeral and laid her to rest in the presence of several people. The assistant commissioner said the deputy commissioner took a strong notice of the incident.

The entire Mohallah (neighbourhood) was locked down, people quarantined at homes and the swabs of those who attended the funeral would be sent for Covid-19 tests, said the official.