PESHAWAR: Mardan recorded 34.3 per cent Covid-19 positivity rate as the virus continued to kill and infect doctors and health workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A report by health department said that 39 more people died of Covid-19 and 1,171 new patients tested positive for the virus. Mardan recorded 33.7 per cent positivity rate, it added.

Senior dentist Dr Jan Ahmed also passed away on Thursday due to the pandemic. So far 52 medics have died of coronavirus in the province.

Dr Jan would be laid to rest in his native Charsadda on Friday, said a statement issued by Provincial Doctors Association. A total of 96 healthcare providers have died of Covid-19 since April 25 last when Dr Mohammad Javed of Hayatabad Medical Complex passed away of the infection.

PDA demanded compensation to the families of the healthcare workers, who died of Covid-19. The government, in April last year, had sanctioned Rs7 million per employee, who died of Covid-19 in hospitals, it said.

Mardan records 34.3 per cent positivity rate

The families of the deceased employees were in dire need of financial assistance, said PDA.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with overall 7.2 per cent positivity of Covid-19 tests is strengthening beds capacity to cope with the pandemic. “We have dedicated 3,194 beds to Covid-19 patients in all government hospitals in the province. There are 13 Covid-19 laboratories, which provide round-the-clock testing services but a lot depend on compliance of SOPs by people,” officials told this scribe.

They said that the testing capacity of the province was 8,000 tests per day that was increasing every day. They added that the pandemic existed in all central districts.

According to a government report, Peshawar ranks third on the nationwide list of infected districts with 26.1 per cent positivity. It says that Nowshera has 21 per cent positivity and Swabi, Swat and Abbottabad each has 14 per cent of the suspected persons tested positive for coronavirus.

Meanwhile, health department continued vaccination to ensure safety of doctors, nurses, paramedics and senior citizens. The department has administered first dose of the vaccine to healthcare providers.

Officials said that so far 50,629 health workers had been administered the vaccine. According to them, 30,464 have been administered the second dose of the vaccine to protect them from Covid-19.

They said that 102,174 senior citizens, including 4478 during the last 24 hours, were given the first dose while 24,681 got second dose of the vaccine. The vaccine is administered free of cost to health workers and senior citizens at the designated hospitals.

A health department report said that19 deaths were reported from Peshawar’s medical teaching institutions, eight from Mardan, four each from Swat and Abbottabad, two from Swabi and one each from Bajaur and Haripur.

“The province has a total of 3,029 mortalities,” said officials. Peshawar has 1,579 mortalities, Mardan 239, Swat 217, Abbottabad 188 and Swabi has recorded 115 deaths.

The report said that new cases made the provincial count for Covid-19 patients 110,875. Of the total undetected persons, 89,370 including 1,043 during the last 24 hours recovered from the virus.

The province has 14,116 active cases, spread mainly in the central districts and Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra districts of Hazara division.

A total of 7,729 Covid-19 tests were conducted in the public sector laboratories per day, the report said.

Health officials said that adherence to standard operating procedure was the only option to remain safe from the virus, especially before vaccination. “We also want to run campaign for vaccination as well as use of mask, which protect users against Covid-19,” they added.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2021

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