ISLAMABAD: The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 82 more lives and caused 2,184 new infections during the last 24 hours, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday.
According to the NCOC, 82 more people succumbed to the disease, taking the death toll to 10,258. With the inclusion of the new infections in the country, the national tally of cases took to 484,362. Overall 438,974 people were recovered from the deadly disease till Friday.
A total of 38,229 tests were conducted across the country during the last 24 hours, while 6,775,307 samples were tested till Friday. A total of 1,745 patients recovered from the virus on Friday and the total count of active cases was 35,130. Some 2,264 patients were stated to be in critical condition and 301 patients were on ventilators out of a total of 2,745 people admitted to 625 hospitals across the country.
The overall positivity rate of novel coronavirus cases stood at 5.81 per cent. The positivity ratio of Covid-19 tests was recorded highest in Karachi up to 15.77 per cent and lowest in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region up to 1.41 per cent.
The positivity rate was recorded 8.52 per cent in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 3.82 per cent in Balochistan, 4.70 per cent in Punjab, 3.39 per cent in Islamabad, 5.38 per cent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and 8.10 per cent in Sindh.
Test positivity rate in Rawalpindi remained 3.45 per cent, 2.30 per cent in Faisalabad, 6.12 per cent in Lahore, 0.9 per cent in Multan, 7.54 per cent in Hyderabad, 15.54 per cent in Peshawar, 2.84 per cent in Swat, 7.72 per cent in Abbottabad, 2.39 per cent in Quetta, 7.69 per cent in Muzaffarabad, 9.26 per cent in Mirpur and it was recorded 3.03 per cent in Gilgit.
Sindh reported at least 1,004 new coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours, taking the provincial tally to 217,636. According to Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, 12 people died due to the deadly virus as the death toll reached 3,594. He further said that 543 more patients recovered from the disease, taking the total to 196,677.
In Punjab, 15,582 corona tests were conducted on Friday out of which 733 tests resulted positive. Another 43 patients died during the last 24 hours. The number of active coronavirus patients in Punjab reached 11,131 whereas the death toll stood at 4,085. More than 2,472,892 tests were conducted in the province till Friday.
Meanwhile, former health minister Dr Zafar Mirza said that he had recommended a country-wide lockdown in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic hit Pakistan.
Speaking at the Arts Council Karachi on Saturday, Dr Mirza talked about his journey as Pakistan’s de facto health minister under a pandemic. “I suggested strict restrictions to contain the virus spread and recommended that we should lock down the country.”
Dr Mirza had been appointed as a special assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on health in April 2019. Prior to that, he led the Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property team at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland for six years.
“I returned to Pakistan on a personal request made by PM Imran,” he said at the arts council. In July 2019, the former special assistant resigned in the backdrop of public scrutiny over the matter of dual nationalities held by members of PM Imran’s cabinet.
Following his exit, there were speculations that the renowned healthcare professional would assume a role in the WHO. However, responding to those reports on Saturday, Dr Mirza said that he could not leave Pakistan after “seeing all the problems faced by the country”.
