PESHAWAR: Amid warnings by experts to stem advancement of local transmission of Covid-2019, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s tally of confirmed patients reached 192 after emergence of four new cases, two from Peshawar and one each from Abbottabad and Lower Dir on Sunday.

The physicians said that local source of transmission could snowball into major public health issue if the government didn’t order lockdown in endemic districts.

The health department report said there were 1,017 suspected patients including 89 cases reported during the last 24 hours and five deaths occurred due to the virus.

A senior physician said that it was an uphill task to trace the contacts of the positive patients in the province and as a result the ailment would affect more people. “The only way is lockdown of the endemic areas. “The trend is very dangerous,” he added.

KP records 192 confirmed cases after emergence of four new ones

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 188 cases, including 101 (56 per cent) infected from local sources, 30 per cent from pilgrims from Iran and 14 per cent from other countries such as Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and New Zealand etc.

A joint report of Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination National Emergency Operations Centre and World Health Organisation said that Islamabad had the highest (69 per cent) number of locally-infected cases, Sindh had 31 per cent, Punjab had 21 per cent, Gilgit-Baltistan had 20 per cent and Balochistan had five per cent locally-infected cases.

KP has put 60 patients in isolation wards in different hospitals. It said that that 857 (58 per cent) cases came from Iran, 191 (13 per cent) were imported from other countries and 420 (29 per cent) had local source of transmission nationwide.

KP risks spread of infection as out of the total number of the cases, 101 have local source of infection including 79 cases from Mardan. The pandemic has kept spreading as during the last few days a local MPA and a police officer have been affected by the virus.

In a video message, the Mardan superintendent of police has appealed to people to stay home. “You should pass time with families. I was on duty and got infected but you have option to stay inside,” he added.

A senior physician said that most of the people, who had arrived from the endemic countries, mingled with the general population.

“We have been urging people to give complete history when they get hospitalised for some other ailments but our requests have fallen on deaf ears,” he said.

Peshawar, the provincial capital, has 21 cases so far but experts believe the number of actual positive patients might be higher because they don’t have any data about the contacts of the positive patients.

In North West General Hospital, a nurse got infected from some unknown contact and was hospitalised after she tested positive.

In a press release, NWGH chief executive officer Dr Ziaur Rehman said that the nurse was under-treatment at Hayatabad Medical Complex. “We are tracing her contacts,” he said.

Experts term the situation in KP worrisome and want complete lockdown, especially in Mardan and other areas where cases have been reported.

In Abbottabad, one of the three confirmed coronavirus patients died in a hospital on Sunday.

The other two patients are under-treatment in different hospitals. The deceased had tested positive for the virus after he received some members of Tablighee Jamaat from Turkmenistan at his home two weeks ago and had gone with them to a mosque in Narian.

Local administration and police rushed to the area of his residence along with disinfection team of Water and Sanitation Services Company and took all preventive measures including disinfection spray in the entire street.

He was admitted to CMH Abbottabad where he died on Sunday. His funeral was offered at Khola Kehal graveyard and was buried by the special squad of health department wearing protective gear.

Also, Haripur district recorded the first confirmed coronavirus case while the number of suspected patients rose to 25 on Sunday.

According to sources, the patient, who belongs to Khalabat Township, tested positive for the virus on March 23 but she opted for self-quarantine.

The district administration, after receiving information, sprayed and condoned off the area of her living and took throat swabs of eight members of her family for test.

In Upper Dir, six suspected patients of Covid-19, four of them relatives of two confirmed patients, tested negative for the virus on Sunday.

The district administration and health department had decided to test the family members of two confirmed patients. They had been kept in isolation centre of Brawal hospital. However, they were discharged, after they tested negative.

A doctor, who initially treated the two confirmed patients, also tested negative for the contagion.

Meanwhile, the first case of coronavirus was reported in Bajaur tribal district on Sunday.

The patient, working as labourer in Punjab, had returned to Bajaur a week ago. He was admitted to district headquarters hospital’s isolation ward on March 27 after showing symptoms of corona virus. He tested positive for the virus.

(Additional reporting by Rashid Javed, Mohammad Sadaqat, Syed Zahid Jan and Anwarullah Khan)

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2020