Daily Times

The coronavirus situation continues deteriorating in the country, with 149 new deaths — the second-highest coronavirus fatalities since the pandemic emerged last year – were reported during the last twenty-four hours, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Sunday.

The number of casualties in a single day makes it the highest number of coronavirus deaths reported this year. The country’s highest death toll from the virus till date was recorded on June 19, 2020 when 153 people passed away due to the virus.

Moreover, the country also recorded its highest single-day tally of coronavirus cases in 10 months with 6,127 fresh cases reported in a day. The country’s tally for confirmed cases has now reached 756,285, whereas the number of total active Covid-19 cases across the country has reached 80,559.

According to the NCOC, Punjab reported the most number of deaths recorded over 24 hours, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). It added that out of the 149 fatalities, 131 were reported in hospitals, whereas 18 were recorded outside of hospitals.

The highest number of ventilators occupied in the country was found to be in Gujranwala with 88 percent occupancy, followed by Multan at 81 percent, Lahore at 80 percent and Mardan at 60 percent.

The NCOC further reported that the highest number of oxygen-bed occupancy in the country was also in Gujranwala, at 85 percent, followed by Peshawar at 73 percent, Gujrat at 71 percent and Swat at 67 percent.

About 71,836 Covid-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours out of which 12,022 were conducted in Sindh; 44,626 in Punjab; 7,382 in KP; 5,507 in Islamabad, 641 in Balochistan, 390 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), and 1,268 tests were conducted in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Out of the total 16,243 deaths reported in the country so far, there have been about 4,551 deaths in Sindh, 7,430 in Punjab, 2,867 in KP, 636 in Islamabad, 223 in Balochistan, 103 in GB and 433 in AJK.

The NCOC also reported that a total of 11,144,367 tests have been conducted since the outbreak of the virus. There are about 630 hospitals with Covid-19 facilities with more than 5,285 patients admitted across the country, it added.

The government on Sunday announced the re-registration of health workers for coronavirus vaccination. Special Assistant to the PM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said that four weeks had been given earlier for health worker’s registration for the coronavirus vaccine. However, he said health workers did not take interest and most of them did not show up for the registration.

He maintained that the government cannot ignore the safety of the frontline workers, therefore, re-registration for the vaccination would begin soon.

On March 17, the government abruptly stopped the registration of health workers across the country.

On the other hand, a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that health workers had shown no interest in registering for the vaccine despite earlier appeals, threats, and even announcements of benefits.

In an alarming situation of Covid-19, Punjab on Sunday reported 97 deaths from coronavirus in a day.

According to the statistics provided by the Punjab health department, as many as 97 people succumbed to the coronavirus in Punjab, during the last 24 hours. “This brings the overall death toll to 7,430 in the province,” the data revealed.

The health department further divulged that as many as 3,562 cases were detected in the province during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of people affected in the province from the infection to 267,572.

Meanwhile, at least ten areas in Rawalpindi were put under smart lockdown on Sunday amid the steep rise in coronavirus cases.

According to the notification issued by the local administration, the lockdown has been imposed in Tabarak Line, Adiala Road, Judicial Apartments Civil Line, Kashmir House Mundra, Mohalla Gulshan, Kamalabad street no 3, Peshawar Road line number 5, Wah Cantt, Dhok Chanial, Gojjar Khan, Hashmi Colony and other localities.

The lockdown will remain intact in the above-said localities of Rawalpindi until April 27. Punjab remains the worst-hit province in terms of deaths followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Till now 7,430 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab 4,551 in Sindh, 2,867 in KP, 636 in Islamabad, 433 in Azad Kashmir, 223 in Balochistan, and 103 in GB.

The government of Punjab said a day earlier that it will increase the number of smart lockdowns across the province, as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to increase.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid confirmed the government will impose more smart lockdowns and increase contract tracing to stem the spread of the virus. She said this during a meeting of the National Command and Control Centre at the Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department.

The meeting was attended by Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Secretary Barrister Nabeel Awan, Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Sarah Aslam while Special Assistant to Prime Minister Dr Faisal Sultan, health ministers of all provinces and officials participated in it via video link.

Dr Yasmin Rashid apprised the participants of measures taken to increase the capacity of public sector hospitals, vaccination status, implementation of SOPs and measures for smart lockdowns.

Federal Minister Asad Omar appreciated the Punjab government’s performance related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Rashid said the provincial government is utilising all of its resources to combat the virus and ensure it does not spread at a rapid rate. “Overall we are vaccinating around 27,000 citizens per day. Our current focus is on scaling up the contact tracing. Smart lockdowns are being enforced in the cities showing a higher ratio of corona positive cases. People are being regularly updated on the seriousness of the situation and importance of following the SOPs,” she said.

She said that Punjab would get supply of more coronavirus vaccines soon, adding that the supply of oxygen to hospitals was being provided continuously.

“During the holy month of Ramazan, vaccination of citizens is being undertaken in two shifts. The morale of the frontline health workers is very high,” she said.