Foreign Desk Report
New York: Professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University Steve Hanke has said that Covid-19 cases are likely being “highly underreported” in Pakistan which could be the reason for the recent drop.
The country has had some respite over the last few weeks with the rate of new infections slowing. But experts say it’s difficult to assess the path of the nation’s epidemic because its testing rate remains one of the lowest in the world.
“The significance of the drop is that cases are likely being highly underreported,” Hanke said in an email to Bloomberg.
The report cited a study by the country’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer Getz Pharma which tested 24,210 people in mostly urban workspaces.
Its study then extrapolated those findings to the urban, adult, working population of Pakistan and found active Covid-19 infections would likely reach 4.11 million, which is almost 15 times higher than the current tally.
“The positivity rate for those tested in the study was 17.5%, higher than government data that shows the rate dropping to below 5% from more than 20% in June.”
