Corona kills 135 in 24 hours

ISLAMABAD: The national tally of active COVID-19 cases was Tuesday recorded 67,665 with 2,566 new cases during the last 24 hours.

According to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 2,989 virus patients recovered and 135 died. One hundred and thirteen (113) were under treatment in the hospital, 77 were on ventilators and 22 in their respective quarantines or homes. Most of deaths occurred in Punjab followed by Sindh.

There were 4,361 COVID infected patients under treatment in critical care in various COVID dedicated healthcare facilities. The national positivity ratio during past 24 hours was recorded 8.61 percent.

The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Lahore 58 percent, Multan 65 percent, Bahawalpur 48 percent and Peshawar 37 percent. Around 560 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no affected person was on ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan.

Around 29,801 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 10,198 in Sindh, 12,972 in Punjab, 3,046 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 1,999 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,006 in Balochistan, 283 in GB, and 297 in AJK. Around 795,511 people have recovered so far across Pakistan, making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio. Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 882,928 cases have been detected including the perished, the recovered and those under treatment so far, including AJK 18,286, Balochistan 23,931, GB 5,428, ICT 79,371, KP 127,224, Punjab 328,775 and Sindh 299,913. Around 19,752 deaths have been recorded in the country since the eruption of the contagion.

Around 4,824 perished in Sindh, 9,500 in Punjab, 3,804 in KP, 733 in ICT, 267 in Balochistan, 107 in GB and 517 in AJK. A total of 12,510,568 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Around 4,799 corona patients were admitted to hospitals across the country.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination Dr Faisal Sultan Tuesday urged the citizens to strictly follow the COVID-19 SOPs to prevent the disease in the wake of a sudden increase in the number of infections countrywide. In a media briefing after a meeting of the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), Dr Faisal said disease expansion had burdened the country’s health system as COVID cases were jumping up for the past few weeks. He said keeping in view the disease risk, certain restrictions were imposed focusing on high-risk sectors with mass gathering. He said this time was not of any complacency but of strict compliance of SOPs.

He said COVID-19 was a deadly virus but it could be controlled just as the country controlled it by following the SOPs during the previous waves.

“We can save precious lives, including those of our near and dear ones, by taking preventive measures.

He said the COVID-19 vaccine was very effective to protect citizens from medical complications from many virus variants.

“Keeping in view the detection of new COVID-19 variants in Pakistan and raising questions about the effectiveness of vaccine process, I advise my people to must go for vaccination to avoid facing more complications and hospitalization.”

He dispelled the impression that Sinopharm vaccine was no more available in Pakistan and made it clear that it will be available in future too.

He rejected some media reports on the side effects of AstraZeneca vaccine, terming them misinformation.

He said the vaccine was the same being used in many European countries.

He clarified that there were very few side effects of AstraZeneca and cases of clotting due to its administration was a rare occurrence.

He said in order to further reduce the chances of clotting, it would be administered only to persons above the age of 40.

He said the number of cases of vaccine side effects reported was just 4,329 against 3.8 million doses administered so far in the country.

He said all of these side effects were mild while 90 percent of the cases pertained to pain at the site of injection and fever.

He said six of the cases, which seemed serious, had been investigated and all were found to be accidental and not caused by the COVID-19 vaccines.