ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/LAHORE: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Asad Umar on Thursday said that the number of new cases of coronavirus in the country had declined by 38.74 percent during the first 15 days of the current month when compared to the same period of the last month and is now under control.
A total of 257,914 Covid-19 cases with new 2,145 cases were reported in Pakistan on Thursday. While 5,426 deaths with 40 new deaths were reported and 178,737 have recovered so far from the pandemic. Active cases are 73,751 while 1,942 are in critical condition in the country.
In his tweets, the minister informed that from June 1 to 15, average tests were 23,403 and from July 1 to 15 average tests were 22,969, whereas the average number of Covid-19 cases from June 1 to June 15 was 5,056 daily while during the same period of the current month of July, the average declined to 3,097 cases.
Asad Umar, who is also the head of National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Corona, rejected the perception that the decline in corona cases was dueto reduction in testing numbers. "Some (people are) saying, cases are down only due to testing reduction.
If positivity ratio was same as in mid-June that is over 22 percent, the 24,262 tests done on Wednesday would have resulted in 5,500 cases, while the actual number was 2,145," he said, adding that decline was primarily due to a nearly 60 percent reduction in positivity.
Asad Umar said the reduction in case was due to better and positive attitude of the people and effective administrative measures. He also warned that the pandemic can spread only by irresponsible behaviour of the people who did not follow the precautionary measures issued by the government to contain spread of the pandemic.
The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Thursday said wearing masks and compliance of standard operating procedures (SOPs) by the public were only measures to contain COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
The NCOC meeting, chaired by Asad Umar, took stock of SOPs through digital analysis and cattle markets' management and emphasized the need to ensure compliance of safety guidelines.
Speaking on the occasion, Asad Umar said public health and safety was the government's top priority and any sort of complacency in following safety protocols would increase the risk of disease spread on Eidul Azha.
He directed the provincial governments to ensure strict compliance of SOPs and health guidelines in cattle markets. The decrease in pandemic spread was not due to reduction of tests per say rather public behaviour of adhering to SOPs compliance and health guidelines helped to contain the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday said that 10,574 samples were tested against which 1,155 new cases of coronavirus emerged that constituted 11 percent detection rate.
In a statement issued here from CM House, the CM Sindh said that so far 615,302 tests have been conducted which detected 110,068 cases of COVID-19 all over Sindh that came to 18 percent overall detection ratio. Syed Murad Ali Shah said that 34 more patients died lifting the death toll to 1,922 that constituted 1.7 percent death rate. He added that currently 34,070 patients were under treatment, of them 33,094 in home isolation, 53 at isolation centers and 923 at different hospitals. The condition of 738 patients is stated to be critical, of them 105 have been shifted to ventilators, he said.
According to Syed Murad Ali Shah 3,775 more patients recovered and returned to normal life. The number of patients recovered so far has reached to 74,076 that constitute 67 percent. Syed Murad Ali Shah said that out of 1,155 new cases, 407 cases have been detected from Karachi.
They include 120 East, South 104, 64 central, Malir 49, Korangi 45 and West 25. Syed Murad Ali Shah said that Shaheed Benazirabad 53, Khairpur 49, Larkana 40, Ghotki 41, Sukkur 38, Naushehroferoze 37, Hyderabad 33, Jacobabad 29, Thatta 21, Badin 19 cases, Sanghar 18, Matiari 18, Kambar 17, Shikarpur 16, Jamshoro 15, Kashmore 14, Mirpurkhas 13, Dadu 14, Sujawal 10, Umerkot five, TM. Khan one.
The chief minister urged people of the province to stay safe by wearing masks while going out of home, wash and sanitize hands, ensure social distancing. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 has taken away 8 more lives in the Punjab province, while the number of coronavirus cases in the province reached 88,539 after registration of 494 new cases till Thursday morning.
According to the spokesperson of the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, total number of deaths has reached 2051 in the province. As many as 228 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Lahore,1 in Nankana Sahib, 5 in Sheikhupura, 31 in Rawalpindi, 13 in Attock, 2 in Chakwal, 4 in Jehlum, 15 in Gujranwala, 20 in Sialkot,3 in Narowal, 6 in Gujrat,3 in Mandi Bahauddin, 22 in Multan, 3 in Khanewal, 19 in Vehari,29 in Faisalabad,4 in Chineot, 6 in Toba Tek Singh, 1 in Jhang, 15 in Rahimyar Khan, 7 in Sargodha, 3 in Mianwali, 3 in Khoshab, 2 in Bhakkar, 2 in Bahawalnagar, 27 in Bahawalpur, 4 in Lodharan, 7 in Dera Ghazi Khan, 7 in Muzaffargarh, 2 in Rajanpur, 1 in Layyah, 4 in Sahiwal, 2 in Okara and 3 new case of COVID-19 were reported in Pakpatan district during the last 24 hours.
The Punjab health department has conducted 618,999 tests for COVID-19 so far, while 64,247 confirmed cases have been recovered all together in the province.
