Corona rages unabated: 57, including FPSC chairman die

ISLAMABAD: As many as 57 COVID-19 patients, including Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Social Welfare Syed Aijaz Ali Shah Sheerazi and FPSC Chairman Maroof Afzal, died during the last 24 hours across the country out of which 36 were on the ventilator.

However, most of deaths were reported in the Punjab followed by Sindh, according to the latest update issued by the National Command & Operation Centre (NCOC).

A total of 56 corona patients, who were under treatment, lost their lives out of whom 51 died in hospitals and five out of hospital on Wednesday. The total active cases in Pakistan on Thursday were recorded 46,376, as 3138 more people tested positive during the last 24 hours. No affected person was on ventilator inBalochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan, while 357 ventilators elsewhere in Pakistan were occupied. The percentage of occupied vents in the four major areas is Islamabad 48%, Peshawar 38% and in Lahore 36%. Similarly, the percentage of occupied oxygen beds in the four major areas was, Islamabad 61%, Rawalpindi 55%, Peshawar 51% and Multan 48%.

Some 40,202 tests were conducted across the country on Wednesday, including 12,582 in Sindh, 15,405 in Punjab, 4,690 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 5,888 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 527 in Balochistan, 412 in Gilgit Baltistan (GB), and 698 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Around 374,301 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count. Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 429,280 cases were detected so far, including AJK 7,517, Balochistan 17,604, GB 4,765, ICT 33,695, KP 50,762, Punjab 125,250 and Sindh 189, 687.

Around 8,603 deaths have been recorded countrywide since the eruption of the contagion, including 3,099 in Sindh, 3,265 in Punjab, 1,439 in KP, 348 in ICT, 171 in Balochistan, 98 in GB and 183 in AJK.

So far, around 5,906,146 tests have been conducted, while 613 hospitals allocated with COVID-19 facilities with 3,170 patients have been admitted across the country.

Chairman Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) Maroof Afzal died of COVID-19 at the Military Hospital Rawalpindi.

He had contracted COVID-19 around one month ago and was shifted to the MH 10 days ago where his health showed signs of improvement in the morning. He was in the oxygen tent but in the afternoon, he started having breathing problem and died.

Syed Aijaz Ali Shah Sheerazi, Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Social Welfare, died at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi.