Covid-19 claims 131 more lives

ISLAMABAD: The COVID-19 pandemic claimed 131 more lives as the national tally of active cases reached 91,547 while 5,112 new cases were reported and 3,272 people recovered from the deadly virus in the last 24 hours.

According to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), of the 131 dead, 113 were under treatment in hospitals. Most of the deaths occurred in Punjab followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The maximum number of ventilators were occupied in Lahore (72%), Multan (74%), Gujranwala (59%) and Mardan (64%). The maximum number of Oxygen beds (alternate oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per medical requirement of COVID patients) were occupied in Gujranwala (74%), Multan (77%), Peshawar (70%) and Nowshera (67%).

Around 641 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no COVID-19 affected person was on ventilator in Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan. Some 49,099 tests were conducted across the country in the last 24 hours, including 14,633 in Sindh, 18,962 in Punjab, 8,230 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 5,168 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 894 in Balochistan, 453 in GB and 759 in AJK.

Around 711,465 people have recovered from the disease so far across the country making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, a total of 820,823 cases have been detected that also include the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far -- 17,057 in AJK, 22,278 in Balochistan, 5,305 in GB, 75,067 in ICT, 117,557 in KP, 301,114 in Punjab and 282,445 in Sindh. About 17,811 deaths have occurred in the country since the eruption of the contagion.

Around 4,633 people have died in Sindh (4 in last 24 hours), 8,410 in Punjab (83 in last 24 hours), 3,274 in KP (36 in last 24 hours), 679 in ICT (2 in last 24 hours), 234 in Balochistan (1 in last 24 hours), 106 in GB and 475 in AJK (5 in last 24 hours).

A total of 11,788,126 corona tests have been conducted so far in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Friday said due to the proactive decisions taken by the NCOC to increase oxygen production capacity and importing more oxygen cylinders, the situation in hospitals was under control despite a rapid increase in the COVID-19 cases.

“Total number of critical care COVID patients on oxygen reached 5,360 yesterday. This is 57% more than the peak last June,” he said in a series of tweets. “Alhamdulillah have so far managed to cope with this huge increase because of proactively building capacity of the entire system from oxygen production to beds,” he added.

The minister, who is also the NCOC chief, said the total production operational capacity of oxygen in Pakistan last year was 487 tons per day which has been increased to 798 tons while the oxygen production has gone up from 465 tons per day last June to 725 tons currently.

“We also imported 19,200 oxygen cylinders last year to ensure distribution.”

He said the federal government added 2,811 oxygen beds all over Pakistan last year whereas the provinces had also added more.

The minister said despite having more than 2,000 additional COVID-19 patients on oxygen compared to last June’s peak, the tight oxygen supply situation that was seen last year had not been created now.

Continuing to build capacity, Asad Umar said, the NCOC decided to import 6,000 tons of oxygen, 5,000 cylinders and 20 cryogenic tanks. "It is this proactive decision-making which has with Allah’s blessings helped us avoid the kind of scenes being witnessed in some other countries."

He noted that the bedrock of this proactive decision-making had been a data-based forward-looking analytical approach, nationally coordinated effort with a whole of the nation approach and hard work of dedicated teams who continue to steer the efforts through this difficult challenge.

“However, the challenge is not over and in fact is continuing to increase. The need for precautions and following SOPs (standard operating procedures) is vital at this point in time. Next few weeks are critical. No system can cope if we allow the disease to spread rapidly," he add.

Also on Friday, President Dr Arif Alvi, while terming the prevailing COVID-19 situation as worrisome, urged the countrymen to strictly adhere to the precautions to contain further spread of the virus.

The president, in a video message, said the COVID-19 situation was getting worrisome in the region. He said the count of coronavirus patients had reached around 5,000 in the country and the daily death ratio was also on a surge.

Any more increase in the COVID patients would be beyond the handling capacity of the hospitals, he added. The president said Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had taught discipline, so it was binding on everyone to abide by his instructions and Muslims should follow the SOPs to win over the pandemic.

He also called for wearing facemasks and observing other precautions during the holy month of Ramazan, ‘Taraveeh’ prayer, observance of Yaum-e-Ali and Eid congregations.

He said as per the guidance from Ulema, the old aged people should not offer Taraveeh in mosques. “One should wear mask if it is unavoidable to go to market. Frequent hand wash for 20 seconds and three-feet distance during prayers are also essential to prevent the infection,” he said.

The president said it was a must for the people to observe SOPs as both the public and private sectors face resource constraint. Therefore, the spread of coronavirus can only be contained through precautions and responsible conduct of the citizens, he said.