ISLAMABAD: The national tally of active COVID cases was Tuesday recorded 94,573 with 3,838 more people testing positive and 2,837 recovering during the 24 hours.
A total of 118 patients have died during the 24 hours out of which 104 were under treatment in hospitals and 14 of them perished in their respective quarantines or homes, according to the latest update issued by the National command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
Most of the deaths occurred in the Punjab province followed by Sindh. Out of 118 patients who died during the 24 hours, 38 were on the ventilator. There were 5,542 infected patients under treatment in critical condition in various COVID dedicated healthcare facilities of the country.
The national positivity ratio during the 24 hours was recorded as 7.36 percent. The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major cities including Peshawar 42 percent, Bahawalpur 47 percent, Lahore 52 percent and Multan 72 percent. Around 538 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no COVID affected person was on ventilator in Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
Some 52,112 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 13,644 in Sindh, 22,917 in Punjab, 8,547 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 4,701 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 922 in Balochistan, 719 Gilgit Baltistan and 662 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Around 1,039,758 people have recovered so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio.
Since the pandemic broke out, a total of 1,160,119 cases have been detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 32,095, Balochistan 32,230, GB 9,906, ICT 99,263, KP 161,853, Punjab 393,136 and Sindh 431,636 patients.
Around 25,788 deaths have been recorded countrywide since the eruption of the contagion. Around 6,875 people perished in Sindh, 11,876 in Punjab, 4,963 in KP, 866 in the ICT, 338 in Balochistan, 173 in GB and 697 in AJK on Monday. A total of 17,756,332 tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities across the country.
Meanwhile, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced that over 1.4 million COVID vaccine doses had been administered countrywide on Tuesday, which was the highest ever single day target achieved since the vaccination campaign began.
The forum tweeted that around 1,405,352 doses had been administered across the country in the 24 hours. However, the cumulative number of both partially and completely vaccinated individuals reached 55,178,137, reports APP. The tweet was followed by the remark mentioning, “This is the highest single day vaccine administration done across the country! Keep it up Pakistan.”
In a separate tweet, the NCOC highlighted the rising per day deaths on average in the country. It wrote that the deaths officially reported from coronavirus in the country during the month of August were reported 2,428 with an average of 80 deaths a day.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government Tuesday announced that the unvaccinated individuals will be unable to get transport, petrol and restaurant services in Lahore from Wednesday (today) onward, reports Geo News.
Entry to the shopping malls will be restricted to vaccinated people, and the unvaccinated visitors will be arrested immediately. Authorities have also decided not to reopen places sealed due to violation of Standard Operating Procedures anytime soon.
In addition, the government has decided to impose Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act, 2006, on unvaccinated government employees in Lahore. Furthermore, according to the Lahore Electric Supply Company, salaries of unvaccinated employees will not be disbursed. A spokesperson for Lesco, Afshan Mudassir, said that out of 23,000 employees, 5,000 had not got themselves vaccinated.
"The salaries have been stopped in light of the decision by the NCOC (National Command and Operation Centre," she said. The spokesperson said the employees had been warned in this regard "numerous times".
Last Friday, the government had announced that unvaccinated people in Lahore will not be provided petrol starting September. Following the district administration's orders, banners were placed at petrol stations across the metropolis, saying that unvaccinated persons will not be provided fuel from September 1.
"No vaccination, no service," read a banner outside a Lahore petrol pump. In a related development, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Tuesday said no Beta variant cases had been detected in August and the overall number of cases and positivity ratio were much lower in Pakistan compared to many other countries.
The ministry said this while responding to the concerns raised and issuing a note about travel restrictions between the UK and Pakistan by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
It added that Pakistan was undoubtedly going through its fourth wave, as mentioned in the note which referred to the official data from Pakistan and it was predominantly made up of the Delta (Indian) variant. The Beta cases mentioned were sequenced in samples taken between April 9 and July 7, 2021 and no such case was detected.
