PESHAWAR: Covid-19 claimed 17 lives and infected 288 more people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday amid declining number of active patients of coronavirus and more recoveries from the pandemic.

The tally of the active cases in the province has gone down to 5,700 as compared to 7,259, recorded a week ago. The number of recovered patients in the province is 161,318 in the province.

Officials told this scribe that that downtrend in active cases and surge in recovery of patients from the virus were welcome signs. During the last 24 hours, the health department reported 814 new recoveries from the virus in the province, they added.

“Active patients pose threat to normal people because they are potential transmitters of the virus. It also signals that how the active patients are taking the disease seriously by maintaining their isolation, leading to their recovery from the pandemic and safety of others,” said officials.

A health department’s report said that five person passed away due to the virus in Peshawar where the overall mortalities reached 2,598. The province-wide deaths from the virus are 5,480.

Pandemic claims 17 lives in the province amid growing recoveries

The capital city also recorded 73 new patients, making its overall score of infections 62,158. Positivity in the hardest-hit district has been registered 6.6 per cent but it has recorded the highest number of deaths and cases in the province.

The provincial metropolis is also home to 927 active cases, the highest number in the province. It has also reported 58,633 recoveries. Bed occupancy in the city’s hospitals is 45 per cent while the case fatality rate is 4.2 per cent. Three fatalities were reported from Dera Ismail Khan, according to the report. Two persons died of the pandemic each in Mardan, Bajaur, Abbottabad and Bannu and one in Kohat.

Mardan, where infectivity rate further slumped to 4.6 per cent, diagnosed 59 new patients. The second populous district in the province, which reported the first death from coronavirus in the country last year, is home to 1,126 active patients. Percentage of occupancy of coronavirus bed is 33 per cent in Mardan.

However, the report said that positivity for the virus was increasing in Bannu district as it was recorded 5.2 per cent. So far, the infectivity rate in the district was below five per cent. Bannu is the only high-risk district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where National Command and Operation Centre has recommended imposition of strict Covid-19 related restrictions.

In Abbottabad, positivity continued to drop as it was recorded 4.1 per cent with 33 per cent bed occupancy. In Swabi where infectivity was recorded 2.4 per cent, had 5.9 per cent bed occupancy, said the report.

A report of World Health Organisation said that currently 1,205 patients were admitted to different hospitals in the province, including 45 in critical position on ventilators.

It said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had a total of 3,457 Covid-19 beds and 374 ventilators were still unoccupied and available for the patients in various hospitals. Overall positivity rate in the province was 5.9 per cent while case fatality rate was 3.1 per cent. It said that the province had 48 health facilities where Covid-19 management and isolation services were available.

The world health agency said that among the deceased persons, 60 per cent were men and 40 per cent were women while the ratio of infection among men was 66 per cent and in women 34 per cent.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2021