Covid deaths above 100 for 4th straight day

Ag Agencies

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday reported 110 more deaths from Covid-19 — over 100 fatalities for the fourth consecutive day — as the third wave of coronavirus continues to take lives despite government restrictions to contain the virus.

According to NCOC data, most deaths were reported in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkwa provinces. With fresh casualties, the country’s overall death toll reached 15,982. On Wednesday, the country reported 135 deaths, the highest single-day fatalities since June 2020, followed by 118 on Thursday. Some 5,364 new infections were reported in the 24 hours leading to Thursday, bringing the caseload to 745,182. In the last 15 days of April alone, the country recorded over 72,000 cases.

The current number of active cases across the country is 78,425, while 650,775 patients have so far recovered. In several district hospitals, nearly 90 per cent of ventilators and oxygen beds are already occupied, while some hospitals are turning away new patients as 100 per cent of beds allocated for coronavirus patients are already taken, according to health ministry officials.

Pakistan is set to receive millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses from various countries in the coming weeks to speed up its immunisation campaign. So far, out of its population of 210 million, nearly 1.4 million people, including health professionals and people above 50 years old, have been inoculated.

By May Pakistan will receive 15 million doses of the vaccine from Germany under the World Health Organisation-led Covax facility — meant to deliver vaccines to low- and middle-income countries — apart from procuring seven million doses from China.

The country is currently using China’s Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines in government hospitals. Private hospitals in major cities have also started inoculation with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine imported by a pharmaceutical company.

The country has also approved emergency use of the UK’s AstraZeneca and China’s CoronaVac vaccines. Both vaccines, however, have yet to be administered. On Wednesday, health authorities said that Pakistan will soon locally produce the CanSino COVID-19 vaccine with the help of China.