ISLAMABAD: Thirty-one more patients of coronavirus died over the past 24 hours as the country has recorded the death of around 30,000 people since the outbreak of the pandemic here two years ago.

While 1,302 patients were in critical condition, the health auth­orities detected 1,360 more cases over the past 24 hours, according to the official data of the National Command and Control Centre on Covid-19.

Since a total of 4,1597 tests were conducted across the country, the national positivity (detection) rate with 1,360 new cases remained 3.26 per cent. However, three cities — Gilgit, Mardan and Quetta — reported over 10pc positivity rate.

The highest positivity rate of 26.6pc was reported in Gilgit, followed by 20.79pc in Mardan and 11.55pc in Quetta, according to a document available with Dawn.

Seven cities — Karachi, Hyd­erabad, Nowshera, Abbottabad, Skardu, Muzaffarabad and Mirpur — reported between 5pc and 10pc positivity rate of Covid-19, while six cities, including Islamabad, Diamer, Swat, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Sargodha, reported less than 2pc positivity rate.

Thirty-one patients die, 1,360 test positive across the country in one day

The document shows that 114,349 tests per million population (PMP) have been conducted across the country. Islamabad conducted 1.16 million tests, indicating that each resident of the federal capital has been tested one and a half times on an average.

Sindh has conducted the second highest number of tests i.e. 154,567 tests PMP, followed by Gilgit-Baltistan 136,139, Khyber Pakhtun­k­h­wa 114,644 and Punjab 85,329, while Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Balo­chistan conducted 89,453 and 38,583 tests per million population, respectively.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Pakistan, 18,966 healthcare workers tested positive and 96pc of them were recovered. Nearly one-fourth of the health workers who contracted the virus were performing duties in critical care while the remaining 76pc were deputed elsewhere.

In all, 9pc ventilators and 11pc of oxygenated beds were in use across the country on Monday, as 1,517 ventilators were unoccupied and 6,663 oxygenated beds vacant.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2022