Daily Times

Asad Umar warns of locking down more sectors if SOPs not followed Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar Monday said that Covid-19 cases and mortality rate in the second wave have started declining due to the timely and result-oriented decisions of the government.

In a series of tweets, the minister said that “when the second wave accelerated we closed high risk areas identified by our analysis in last week of November”. He added in the first week of December, the admissions of Covid-19 patients were at peak in hospitals, whereas in second week of the month, the number of patients on oxygen and ventilators was high and in the third week mortality rate was high and then started declining.

He said decisions and results were highly correlated. “Data clearly shows that corona health consequences are strongly correlated with our decisions and personal choices,” he said. He, however, reiterated his advice to the people to keep on taking precautionary measures in order to avoid any further spread of the pandemic. “If we do the right things we shall inshAllah continue to safeguard lives and livelihoods”, he added.

Asad Umar said, “The devastation unfolding in countries like USA and UK these days where there were more cases and Covid deaths than at any time in the first wave, show the danger that could face us, if we do not continue to do the right things, with both the state and citizens playing their role”.

The minister also shared a data regarding the trends of Covid cases. According to the data, the number daily admissions of Covid patients in hospitals had declined from its peak of 269 patients on November 30 to 183 patients on January 11. Similarly, the number of deaths has also declined from 78 died on December 21, 2020 whereas on January 11, the number of deaths has declined to 32. Likewise, the number of critical hospitalized corona patients has also declined from 2,511 patients on December 07 to 2,286 patients on January 11.

The national tally of total active Covid-19 cases in Pakistan on Monday reached 35,246 as 1,877 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 1,402 people recovered from it during the last 24 hours. Thirty-two patients lost their lives out of which 29 were under treatment in hospitals and three others in their respective homes or quarantines, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). Most of the deaths had occurred in Punjab, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Out of the total 32 deaths, 17 patients died on ventilators.

No Covid-19 affected person is on ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan (GB) while 294 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in Pakistan.

The maximum oxygen beds were also occupied in four major areas of Peshawar 53 percent, Multan 36 percent, Karachi 35 percent and ICT 29 percent. Some 34,524 tests were conducted across the country on Sunday, including 10,571 in Sindh, 13,396 in Punjab, 5,798 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 3,546 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 537 in Balochistan, 349 in GB, and 327 in AJK. Around 458,371 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 86 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients.

Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 504,293 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 8,489, Balochistan 18,412, GB 4,880, ICT 39,242, KP 61,424, Punjab 145,508 and Sindh 226,338.