PESHAWAR: Eight more people died of coronavirus on Tuesday raising the death toll due to the pandemic to 490 in the province.

The province also recorded 412 newly infected persons with the virus, including Prof Dr Jawad Ahmed, focal person for public health reference laboratory at Khyber Medical University (KMU). Prof Jawad’s mother and wife also tested positive for Covid-19. He requested people to pray for their recovery.

A laboratory technician at KMU and his 13 family members also tested positive for Covid-19. Last month, Dr Inayat Shah along with his parents had tested positive at KMU. Seven others including technicians and support staff had also tested positive for coronavirus.

Death toll in the province reaches 490

Of the new deaths, according to health department report, three people passed away in Peshawar, one each in Mardan, Swat, Dir Lower, Abbottabad and Kohat.

Peshawar is atop of list of fatalities due to the virus as a total of 268 have breathed their last so far in the provincial capital while 47 have lost their lives in Swat, another endemic district of the province.

Mardan has enlisted 29 deaths due to the infection and it is third district on the list of fatalities caused by the virus. Malakand district has recorded 17 deaths due to the virus, Bajaur 16, Abbottabad 15, Nowshera 14, Dir Lower 13, Kohat 12, Swabi 11, Charsadda seven, Buner and Mansehra six each and Battagram has recorded five deaths due to the pandemic.

Peshawar is also leading the provincial tally of new cases with a total of 4,029 as it recorded 174 new confirmed patients during the last 24 hours. Dir Lower and Charsadda recorded 33 new cases apiece, making total number of confirmed patients in both the districts 400 and 256, respectively.

Swat district recorded 60 more patients, making the overall number of patients diagnosed with Covid-19 there 1,012 whereas Dir Upper tested 21 new patients positive with the pandemic, raising its total score of cases to 222.

Haripur, which has so far registered four deaths from the virus, detected 10 new patients where tally of confirmed patients reached 122. In Abbottabad, eight new cases were diagnosed with the virus, making its overall cases 331.

Mardan reported 12 new cases where total number of infected persons reached 513. The district has also registered 29 deaths due to the infectious disease while tally of patients in Nowshera reached 284 with registration of six new patients.

The report said that the province also treated 112 patients, who had previously been diagnosed positive for the ailment. So far, 3045 patients have recovered from the ailment in the province.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2020