ISLAMABAD: Though the national positivity rate of Covid-19 infections remained under six per cent, there was no let-up in the number of casualties as another 85 people succumbed to the virus on Friday, taking the death tally to 9,754.
Of the 85 deaths, 77 took place in hospitals with 53 victims having been on ventilators. A further 2,152 people contracted the virus during the last 24 hours.
Pakistan had reported the highest number of deaths during the second wave of Covid-19 and the second highest since the outbreak of the pandemic when 111 people breathed their last on Thursday.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the national tally of active cases reached 38,510 on Friday while 1,824 people recovered.
Most of the deaths occurred in Punjab where 48 people died, followed by Sindh where 21 patients succumbed to the virus. Altogether eight people died in Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) while eight passed away in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. No loss of life was reported from Balochistan.
The NCOC data said 330 ventilators allocated for Covid-19 patients were in use in various parts of the country except in AJK, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Maximum number of vents was occupied in Multan with 52pc in use, followed by Islamabad at 39pc, Peshawar, 30pc and Lahore, 37pc.
The percentage of beds, providing oxygen facility other than a ventilator as per patient’s requirement, was the highest in Peshawar where 62pc were in use, followed by Islamabad and Abbottabad where 34pc were occupied and then Multan where the ratio was 42pc.
As many as 39,435 tests were conducted across the country during the last 24 hours with 12,646 in Sindh, 15,195 in Punjab, 5,855 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4,092 in Islamabad Capital Territory, 555 in Balochistan, 370 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 722 in AJK.
According to the data, around 418,958 people have so far recovered from the virus across the country, which was an 86pc recovery ratio.
Since the emergence of the virus, 467,222 cases have been detected throughout the country out of which 9,754 people have fallen prey to the virus.
The emergence of a new variant in the UK has also become a challenge across the globe. Pakistan has joined several countries in imposing restrictions on flights from Britain to prevent the new strain from entering its territory.
The Ministry of National Health Services has said that it was vigilant about the new variant of SARS CoV-2 in Pakistan. However, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan admitted that the situation in the health sector was depicting a gloomy picture.
Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2020
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