The national tally of total active Covid-19 cases jumped to 69,811 on Friday as 5,312 more people tested positive for the deadly virus, the second straight day the country reported over 5,000 fresh infections.
Ninety-eight corona patients died on Friday, 98 of whom were under treatment in hospitals and seven in their respective quarantines or homes, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). Most of the deaths occurred in Punjab, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Out of the total 105 deaths, 33 died on ventilators during their treatment.
The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Multan 81 percent, Bahawalpur 68 percent, Gujranwala 88 percent and Lahore 79 percent. The maximum oxygen beds were occupied in four major areas of Rawalpindi 64 percent, Gujranwala 85 percent, Peshawar 84 percent and Gujrat 80 percent. Around 509 ventilators are occupied elsewhere in the country while no Covid-affected person is on ventilator in Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan.
Some 54,948 tests were conducted across country on Thursday, including 9,392 in Sindh, 25,871 in Punjab, 8,090 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 8,711 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,257 in Balochistan, 467 in GB, and 1,160 in AJK. Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 710,829 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 14,069, Balochistan 20,097, GB 5,097, ICT 64,173, KP 96,128, Punjab 243,295 and Sindh 267,970.
Around 625,789 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.
One more doctor died of Covid-19 on Friday amid increasing number of positive cases in Peshawar. Dr Hakeem Shah was working as child specialist at the Cantonment General Hospital and had contracted coronavirus a few weeks ago. He was on ventilator at a private hospital in Peshawar. He breathed his last on Friday.