Daily Times

Pakistan on Tuesday recorded 118 coronavirus deaths, the highest single-day death toll since June 25, 2020 when 123 fatalities were reported.

The highest number of deaths were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which recorded 74 fatalities. Meanwhile, Punjab has the highest overall death toll at 7,062. So far, Pakistan has reported 15,619 Covid-19 deaths.

The national tally of total active Covid-19 cases climbed to 76,034 on Tuesday as 4,318 more people tested positive for the deadly virus while 3,432 people recovered from the disease.

Out of the total 118 deaths, 37 of the deceased died on ventilators during their treatment. The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Multan 81 percent, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) 52 percent, Gujranwala 88 percent and Lahore 80 percent. The maximum oxygen beds were occupied in four major areas of Charsadda 77 percent, Gujranwala 85 percent, Peshawar 74 percent and Swabi 76 percent. Around 503 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no Covid-affected person was on ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan.

Some 50,520 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 8,642 in Sindh, 27,320 in Punjab, 5,896 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 6,251 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 960 in Balochistan, 560 in GB, and 891 in AJK.

Around 638,267 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 729,920 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 14,687, Balochistan 20,397, GB 5,130, ICT 66,983, KP 100,275, Punjab 252,974 and Sindh 269,474. About 15,619 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion.

A total of 10,829,994 tests have been conducted so far, while 630 hospitals are equipped with Covid facilities. Some 5,024 patients are currently admitted to the hospitals across country.

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Tuesday said that more than 1.3 million people had so far been vaccinated against Covid-19 in the country.

Addressing a press conference, the minister informed that as of now, 900,000 vaccines are available in the country while more would be procured in coming days. The minister, who is also chairman of the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), said currently 60,000 to 70,000 people are receiving vaccines daily and this number would be increased up to 200,000 after Eid ul Fitr. He said although people of all age group are vulnerable to the pandemic but young people have more immunity therefore the government has decided to give priority to the elderly people and the healthcare workers over other people for the vaccination.

Asad Umar hoped that the vaccination for the people of age group 50 to 60 years would start soon whereas after Eid-ul-Fitr, people of all age group would be able to get the vaccine administered. “I ask all the citizens to get their name registered for vaccination because as soon as the vaccination is available for their age group, they receive it first.”

The minister added that so far only 1.7 million out of total 26 million people of over 60 years of age have been registered for the vaccination. To a question, he said in the beginning, queue jumping incidents were reported and some people were administered the vaccine out of turn but now every person is receiving the vaccine on his turn.