The national tally on Tuesday of total active Covid-19 cases was recorded at 49,929 as 2,145 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 1,029 people recovered from the disease.
Thirty-seven patients died on Tuesday, 35 of whom were under treatment in hospitals and two of them perished in their respective homes or quarantine facilities, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
Most of the deaths occurred in Sindh, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Out of the total 37 deaths, 22 were under treatment on ventilators. There are 2,697 Covid-infected patients under treatment in critical condition and 65 of them were admitted in various Covid-dedicated healthcare facilities of the country on Tuesday.
The national Covid positivity ratio on Tuesday was recorded 5.25%. The Covid positivity ratio is the percentage of actual positive cases appearing in every 100 tests performed to identify infected individuals.
The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major cities including Islamabad 22%, Lahore 20%, Peshawar 14% and Multan 15%. The maximum Oxygen beds (alternate oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per medical requirement of COVID patient) was also occupied in four major cities of Gilgit 47%, Karachi 45%, Abbotabad 28% and Muzaffarabad 28%.
Around 245 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no COVID affected person was on ventilator in Balochistan, and Gilgit Baltistan (GB).
Some 40,805 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 11,794 in Sindh, 17,428 in Punjab, 7,276 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 1,775 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,326 in Balochistan, 596 in GB, and 610 in AJK.
Around 921,095 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 broke out, a total of 993,872 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 22,192, Balochistan 29,190, GB 7,510, ICT 84,842, KP 140,962, Punjab 351,000 and Sindh 358,176.
About 22,848 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion. Around 5,737 people perished in Sindh, 17 of them died in hospitals in the past 24 hours. Some 10,892 people died in Punjab with nine deaths occurred in hospitals and two out of the hospitals in the past 24 hours. As many as 4,391 people expired in KP, five of them died in hospitals, 787 individuals died in ICT, 319 people died in Balochistan, 120 infected people perished in GB, three of them died in the hospitals and 602 people in AJK succumbed to the deadly virus, one of them died in the hospital.
A total of 15,484,282 tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities across the country. Some 2,896 corona patients were admitted in hospitals.
Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Tuesday said that complete restrictions could only be lifted in the country until a major portion of the population fully got vaccinated against COVID-19. “The number of people administered vaccine in a single day crossed 600,000 mark on Monday for first time in the country”, the minister who also chairs meeting of NCOC said in a tweet. However, he said, although the rising number of inoculated people is an encouraging sign but it needed further boost so that all type of restrictions in every field of life were lifted as soon as possible.
Asad Umar said the UK was an excellent lesson of vaccination minimizing health impact of COVID. Sharing graphs in his tweet, the minister pointed out that the cases had risen in current wave in UK at about the same rate as previous wave, but number of people needing hospitalization was much less due to high rate of vaccination achieved.
The NCOC also declared compliance of guidelines issued on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha particularly SOPs for Eid prayer congregations critical to contain disease spread.