Peshawar’s corona positivity rate highest in country

ISLAMABAD: The positivity rate of coronavirus tests in Peshawar has reached 19.95 percent which is the highest in the country, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was told on Friday.

Peshawar is followed by Karachi, where the positivity rate stands at 17.73 percent. In Hyderabad, 16.32 percent of the COVID-19 tests are turning out to be positive, the NCOC was told, making it the city with the third highest positivity rate in the country.

According to local media reports, Sindh has the highest positivity rate of 13.25 percent, while Azad Jammu and Kashmir stands on the second spot with a ratio of 10.79 percent. Punjab has a positivity rate of 3.59 percent — the lowest in the country.

Meanwhile, KP's positivity rate is 9.25 percent, while Balochistan has 6.41 percent rate. Islamabad and Gilgit-Baltistan have a positivity rate of 5.84 percent and 4.81 percent, respectively.

At the national level, the positivity rate stands at 7.2 percent, health experts informed the NCOC. In Pakistan, the maximum positivity rate had reached 23 percent in June when it had increased from 6 percent in May, while the positivity rate was brought down to 1.7 percent in September. Furthermore, the number of critical COVID-19 patients across the country has reached 2,112.

The meeting, which was attended by provincial chief secretaries via video link, was also told that meetings had been held with religious scholars and marriage hall associations to ensure the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in mosques and wedding halls.

Asad Umar, who is also the federal planning minister, said that the health ministry should issue guidelines and directions to follow SOPs as laid out by the government in order to ensure public health and safety.

COVID-19 cases in Pakistan on Friday were recorded 45,533 as 3,113 more people tested positive for the deadly virus during the last 24 hours.

Fifty-four corona patients, 46 of whom were under treatment in hospital and eight out of hospital, died on Thursday, according to the latest update issued by the NCOC.

No COVID-affected person was on ventilator in AJK, GB and Balochistan, while 276 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in Pakistan, out of 1,772 allocated for COVID-19 patients.

Some 43,214 tests were conducted across the country on Thursday, including 10,585 in Sindh, 18,198 in Punjab, 4,899 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 7,228 in ICT, 1,030 in Balochistan, 312 in GB and 908 in AJK. Around 335,881 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 86 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients.

Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 389,311 cases were detected so far, including 6,501 in AJK, 17,008 in Balochistan, 4,598 in GB, 28,980 in ICT, 46,281 in KP, 117,160 in Punjab and 168,783 in Sindh. About 7,897 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion, including 2,885 in Sindh, 13 of them died in hospital and six out of hospital on Thursday, 2,945 in Punjab, 22 of them died in hospital on Thursday, 1,346 in KP, two of them died in hospital on Thursday, 305 in ICT, eight of them died in hospital on Thursday, 165 in Balochistan, 96 in GB and 155 in AJK, one of them died in hospital and two died out of hospital on Thursday.