Daily Times

The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Thursday undertook a detailed review of emerging Covid-19 situation across the country and initiated work on a comprehensive response to mitigate risk of expected second wave of the disease.

The NCOC situational brief was held here with Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar where effects of opening up of various sectors with health guidelines and protocols was reviewed.

Speaking on the occasion, Asad Umar emphasised that public safety is of utmost importance and success of national anti-coronavirus efforts should not be allowed to go waste.

Health experts apprised the forum on pattern and prevalence of possible second wave in the world and particularly in the region. The forum was apprised that there was slight increase in positivity ratio and number of coronavirus cases across the country though overall situation remained stable. The forum was apprised that there was decline on following health guidelines on wearing of masks, social distancing and no mask no service protocols. It was mentioned that social events and large public gatherings particularly in restaurants and marriage halls were identified as higher risk activities where guidelines were not being followed as directed by health experts.

The forum decided to review the present situation in length and formulate comprehensive response to check any possible resurgence of Covid-19 to ensure public health and safety. The forum noted that the response plan would be shared with all stakeholders for their input and after consensus, implementation strategy would be issued in next few days.

Meanwhile, the total active Covid-19 cases in Pakistan on Thursday were recorded at 8,015 as 583 more people tested positive for the deadly virus during the last 24 hours. Nine corona patients, who were under treatment in hospital died on Wednesday, according to the latest update issued by the NCOC.

No affected person was on ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Balochistan, while 76 ventilators elsewhere in Pakistan, out of 1,912 allocated for COVID-19 patients, were occupied. Some 31,168 tests were conducted across the country on Wednesday, including 9,094 in Sindh, 10,712 in Punjab, 3,797 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 5,398 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,274 in Balochistan, 444 in Gilgit Baltistan (GB), and 449 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Around 302,375 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients. Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 316,934 cases were detected so far, including AJK 2,937, Balochistan 15,460, GB 3,886, ICT 17,009, KP 38175, Punjab 100,272 and Sindh 139,195.

About 6,544 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion, including 2,535 Sindh among 4 died in hospital on Wednesday, 2,247 in Punjab two of them died in hospital on Wednesday, 1,263 in KP, 187 in ICT three of them in hospital on Wednesday, 146 in Balochistan, 89 in GB and 77 in AJK.

A total of 3,761,389 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 735 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Some 744 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.

Addressing students at Batrasi Cadet College, Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood Thursday said that with the blessing of Almighty Allah, “we are in a position to send our children to schools, the decision of closing schools during the outbreak was a good assessment which has saved our education sector and now we have no intention to close educational institutions again.”