Daily Times

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar Tuesday said that a significant improvement has been witnessed in compliance of standard operating procedures (SOP) to control spread of Covid-19 after deployment of military in the country.

“National average compliance has doubled from 34 percent on April 25 to 68 percent on May 3,” he said in his tweet. He also stressed the need to sustain and build on this compliance level specially till Eid-ul-Fitr.

Meanwhile, the national tally of total active Covid-19 cases was recorded at 86,151 on Tuesday, as 3,377 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 5,018 people recovered from the disease. One hundred and sixty-one patients died on Tuesday, 140 of whom were under treatment in hospitals and 21 in their respective quarantines or homes, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

On Tuesday, most of the deaths occurred in Punjab, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Out of the total 161 deaths, 70 were under treatment on ventilators. The maximum ventilators are occupied in four major areas including Lahore 67 percent, Multan 76 percent, Gujranwala 62 percent and Bahawalpur 56 percent.

The maximum oxygen beds are occupied in four major areas of Lahore 56 percent, Swabi 67 percent, Peshawar 63 percent and Swat 66 percent. Around 666 ventilators are occupied elsewhere in the country while no Covid-affected person is on ventilator in Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan.

Some 37,587 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 12,696 in Sindh, 14,137 in Punjab, 6,030 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 3,596 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 424 in Balochistan, 392 in GB, and 312 in AJK.

Around 733,062 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 837,523 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 17,397, Balochistan 22,664, GB 5,330, ICT 76,492, KP 120,590, Punjab 308,529 and Sindh 286,521.

About 18,310 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion. A total of 11,965,682 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 631 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Some 6,464 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.

The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination on Tuesday said that the per day figure of Covid-19 vaccination of citizens has reached to 164,168 against the previous number of 150,000. According to an official of the ministry, the target is to reach 300,000 vaccinations daily in the country while the total vaccine administered till now is 2,766,108.

He said that the government had planned to vaccinate 70 million population by the end of the year 2021. He said, at present the eligible population of Pakistan for vaccination is 100 million out of 220 million.

The NCOC on Tuesday decided to formulate monitoring teams at federal, provincial and district levels to ensure implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions from May 8-16. The forum decided that during the period all business and shops would remain closed with few exceptions like food outlets, grocery stores, paramedics, petrol pumps and bakeries etc. The forum was informed that there would be a complete ban on tourism for both locals and outsiders. All tourist resorts, formal and informal picnic spots, public parks, shopping malls, all hotels and restaurants in or around tourist or picnic spots would remain closed. Travel nodes leading to tourist or picnic spots both in hilly spots of Northern Areas and sea views or beaches in south would also be closed. However, locals especially the people of Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir would be allowed to travel back home. The NCOC session was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar and co-chaired by National Coordinator Lieutenant General Hamood Uz Zaman Khan.