ISLAMABAD: While 1,743 new Covid-19 cases and 34 deaths were reported in a single day on Friday, the data of the National Command and Operation Centre on coronavirus shows that as many as 72 per cent of total patients are over the age of 50 years.

Besides, 74pc of the patients are male and 72pc of them have comorbidities, which means that the patients are suffering from more than one disease at the same time. Conditions described as comorbidities are often chronic or long-term conditions.

According to the data, out of 34 new deaths, eight were reported from Lahore, five from Peshawar, three each from Karachi and Rawalpindi, two each from Charsadda and Now­shera and one each from Abbottabad, Bajour, Bannu, Dadu, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Kasur, Kohat, Lakki Marwat, Mansehra and Mardan.

As many as 163 patients were on ventilators -- 78 in Punjab, 41 in Sindh, 40 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and four in Islamabad.

Surge in number of cases recorded after relaxation in lockdown restrictions

However, a positive development is that around 32pc patients have been fully recovered from the disease. 7,015 in Sindh, 5,906 in Punjab, 2,297 in KP, 762 in Balochistan, 427 in GB, 152 in Islamabad and 94 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Documents show that overall 460,692 tests have been conducted in Pakistan of which 14,705 were conducted on Friday.

The global data shows that over 5.3 million have been infected with coronavirus and over 340,000 deaths have been reported. More than 2.1m patients have been fully recovered.

An official of Ministry of National Health Services, requesting not to be named, said that for the last some days the number of cases had started increasing due to relaxation in the lockdown restrictions.

“Unfortunately in coming days we will observe a huge surge in cases as markets and other places have been flooded with the people who have stopped following precautionary measures,” he said.

District Health Officer of Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia, while talking to Dawn, said that the government had lifted lockdown to provide the people economic opportunities but unfortunately they had taken it as the disease had been eliminated.

“The responsibility lies both on the government and people. The government has done its job by allowing the people to earn their living and now it is responsibility of the masses to take precautionary measures. It is a two-way responsibility and we cannot get better results if only the government fulfils its responsibility,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2020