ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The death toll from the novel coronavirus reached over 18,000 in Pakistan, according to a government tally on Sunday, as new cases spike in several cities.
Data released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) suggested 113 people died of coronavirus-related complications in the last 24 hours while 4,414 fresh infections took the total caseload to 829,933.
Statistics 2 May 21:
Total Tests in Last 24 Hours: 45,275
Positive Cases: 4414
Positivity % : 9.74%
Deaths : 113— NCOC (@OfficialNcoc) May 1, 2021
Furthermore, 5,193 patients completely recovered from the contagion disease during the period, raising the recoveries to 722,202 with a recovery rate of 87 per cent.
Active cases and the transmission rate were recorded at 89,661 and 9.74 per cent, respectively.
284,738 cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 304,889 in Punjab, 119,277 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 75,892 in Islamabad, 22,528 in Balochistan, 17,297 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and 5,312 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
Moreover, 8,550 people have so far lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab, 4,658 in Sindh, 3,350 in KP, 691 in Islamabad, 477 in AJK, 237 in Balochistan and 107 in GB.
The authorities conducted 45,275 coronavirus detection tests on Saturday, taking the total number of samples tested to 11,882,14 since the beginning of the pandemic in February last year.
VENTILATOR OCCUPANCY IN PUNJAB REACHES ALARMING LEVELS:
In a press conference, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid warned that almost all ventilators in Gujranwala were occupied while the occupancy rate in Lahore had arisen to 81.5 per cent.
Giving details of healthcare facilities, the minister said that there were 2,730 beds in district headquarters hospitals (DHQs) across Punjab. Of these, around 600 were currently occupied.
There were 97 ventilators in the DHQs, of which 20 were in use, she disclosed.
“All facilities and human resources are available,” Rashid assured. The health department was making efforts to shore up facilities, she added.
She said that the transmission rate in Lahore, which had been significantly high previously, had now been reduced in comparison to other cities, crediting the district administration’s efforts to ensure strict compliance with health guidelines.
She said that 280 beds had been added to the high dependency unit (HDU) at Expo Centre in Lahore while 10 ventilators were also being added as a “backup option” in case the hospitals were strained.
Rashid said the ventilator occupancy rate in Multan stood at 88 per cent, followed by Sargodha at 80 per cent, Bahawalpur at 52 percent, Dera Ghazi Khan at 39 percent and Faisalabad at 38 per cent.
She disclosed 78,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine were administered on Saturday, expressing satisfaction that Punjab was “ahead of all other provinces” when it came to administering the jabs.
She said that there had been an increase in the number of people wanting to get immunised since the government allowed walk-in vaccinations for people aged 50 to 59.
Around 219,000 healthcare workers have been vaccinated so far, the minister said, adding that the government was setting up a separate centre to vaccinate their private-sector counterparts.
“The vaccines available are [from] Sinopharm, CanSino and Sinovac. We received 2.1 million doses, we have 0.82 million right now,” she said.
“There is no problem regarding vaccines because according to our information, the [federal] government is receiving 2 million vaccines before May 10 of which a big portion will be given to Punjab.”
