PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded the single-day record surge of 1,035 coronavirus cases on Saturday with 19 more people losing life to Covid-19.

Of the new fatalities, which took the province’s tally to 661, five were reported in Peshawar district, four in Nowshera, two each in Kohat and Orakzai and one each in Hangu, Battagram, Malakand, Lower Dir, Mardan and Mohmand.

Accord to a health department report, Peshawar’s cases totalled 6,179 after the detection of 328 more. A total of 340 deaths by the virus have so far been reported in the district.

Death toll from the Covid-19 outbreak reached 26 in Nowshera district after four more patients breathed their last.

Kohat district’s tally of the virus deaths totalled 55 after the passing of four residents.

19 new fatalities take province’s tally to 661

Swat district recorded 67 more cases, which took their overall number to 1,671.

Its 54 residents have died of the virus, the second most in the province after Peshawar.

Charsadda and Khyber detected 24 and 13 new cases, respectively.

A fortnight ago, the virus was prevalent in Peshawar, Malakand and Mardan divisions but now, it has spread to the entire province. More and more cases and deaths are reported in every district on a daily basis.

Kolai Palas recorded the first four Covid-19 cases on Saturday.

Peshawar and Malakand divisions, which have been hit hardest by the virus, have 7,605 and 4,767 patients respectively. They recorded 413 and 355 more cases respectively on Saturday.

Peshawar and Swat divisions have so far registered 383 and 132 deaths from the virus respectively.

Hazara division has recorded 1,361 cases, Mardan 1,016, Kohat 777, Dera Ismail Khan 272 and Bannu 137. A total of 219 patients recovered from the virus in the province taking the overall tally to 4,291.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Doctors Association has demanded of the government to act rationally to prevent the Covid-19 crisis from worsening.

It said the hospitals in Peshawar had run out of beds and ventilators, so the government should provide them with oxygen beds, masks, machines and ventilators to cope with the situation.

In a statement, PDA chairman Dr Zubair Zahir said the three hospitals of Peshawar couldn’t bear the load of the entire province.He asked the government to come out of comfort zone and work for the people selflessly during the current hard times.

Our correspondent from Nowshera adds: Five people died of coronavirus, including a supervisor of Class-IV employees, in the Qazi Medical Complex.

Deputy medical superintendent of the complex Dr Zahid said the latest victims of the virus belonged to Toheedabad Kandhar, Niazampur and Pirpayee.

Until now, the virus has claimed 36 lives in the district.

Meanwhile, PML-N provincial information secretary Ikhtiar Wali Khan has announced that he will donate his blood plasma for coronavirus patients after recovery from the virus.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2020