-Infections show drop for 5th consecutive day as overall tally on verge of 169,000
-Recoveries catch up to 37% as aggregate count nears 62,000
By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) noted on Friday that coronavirus cases saw a drop over the past five days after witnessing a continuous increase since the outbreak of the infection.
Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar chaired a meeting of the NCOC.
The meeting was informed that around 103 more ventilators have been earmarked for serious COVID-19 patients, taking the total number of ventilators available for such patients across the country to 1,503.
It was informed that more ventilators are being procured on a fast-track basis to meet the further requirement of hospitals. More than 1,500 additional ventilators would be available by the end of July. In order to ease the burden on major hospitals across the country, 2,150 additional oxygenated beds are being operationalised on a war footing.
60 beds would be added to hospitals in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 200 to Balochistan hospitals, 40 to hospitals in Gilgit Baltistan (GB), 450 to the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) hospitals, 400 a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) hospitals, 500 to Punjab hospitals and 500 to hospitals in Sindh.
The NCOC was told that testing capacity has increased by 65 times and is being further ramped up to more than 100,000 tests per day by mid July.
Around 546 ventilators were occupied across Pakistan where a total of active COVID-19 cases stand at 100,450.
A total of 165,062 cases were detected so far, including 769 in AJK, 8,998 in Balochistan, 1,225 in Gilgit Baltistan, 9,941 in Islamabad, 20,182 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 61,678 in Punjab and 62,269 in Sindh. Pakistan recorded 37% recoveries of Covid-19 patients after more than 2,100 people were discharged from hospitals over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
According to the ministry’s daily report, recoveries increased by 2,161 to 61,383, while overall cases reached 165,062 with 4,944 new additions. Pakistan has conducted over 1.01 million tests to date, the report said.
A total of 136 fatalities the country’s highest daily figure also recorded on Wednesday took the death toll to 3,229. The report showed the mortality rate for critical cases has risen slightly to 2% from 1.9%.
Earlier this week, Pakistan announced it was considering using dexamethasone to treat critically ill Covid-19 patients. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza said the country had ample supply of the cheap steroid, which UK researchers have found reduces deaths by about one-third in patients on ventilators and one-fifth in patients who require oxygen. As many as 86 prisoners and 11 staffer have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at Sukkur Central Jail on Friday.
According to the District Health Officer, tests of 1,100 prisoners of Central Jail Sukkur were conducted out of which 86 inmates were tested positive for the pandemic.
Moreover, 11 employees of the jail were also detected with the COVID-19. It is noteworthy to mention here that more than 200 prisoners and nine officials had been detected with coronavirus on May 19 which led the Sindh Prisons’ department to issue directives for the special arrangements for the protection of all prisoners.
