Covid-19 deaths rising in Pakistan with Karachi hard hit

The government portal keeping track of the disease in Pakistan posted 105 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day toll since the peak of the first wave in June, Covid-19 deaths to 9,010 since February when the country reported its first coronavirus infection.

Covid-19 deaths rising in Pakistan with Karachi hard hit

The number of daily Covid-19 deaths from coronavirus-related complications crossed the grim milestone of 100 for the first time in five months with the contagious disease spreading fast in Karachi.

The government portal keeping track of the disease in Pakistan posted 105 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day toll since the peak of the first wave in June, taking the death toll to 9,010 since February when the country reported its first coronavirus infection.

The portal reported 2,731 fresh cases after conducting 38,028 tests — a positivity ratio of 7.18 percent. The new infections increased the coronavirus total to 445,977.

According to the nationwide breakdown, Punjab recorded 535 new infections, taking the provincial caseload to 128,673. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan posted 466 and 25 new infections respectively while Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) collectively reported 185 new cases.

The positivity rate was recorded at 14.8 percent in Sindh, 11.3 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 5 percent in AJK, 4.9 percent in Balochistan, 3.2 percent in Punjab and 1.6 percent in GB.

Karachi has been especially hard hit with a daily positivity rate of 18.76 percent. It stood at 16.56 percent in Hyderabad, 15.99 percent in Peshawar, 6.15 percent in Rawalpindi, 5.8 percent in Quetta, 5.31 percent in Mirpur, 3.8 percent in Abbottabad, 3.46 percent in Swat, 2.94 percent in Islamabad, 2.71 percent in Multan, 2.67 percent in Faisalabad, 1.8 percent in Muzaffarabad and 1.45 percent in Gilgit.

Despite an intense second wave, the country has yet to utilise its full testing capacity of 75,303, with daily testing significantly below numbers proposed by global health experts.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the government’s testing policies likely only record the most symptomatic patients while ignoring the spread among asymptomatic carriers, which studies suggest comprise the majority of infections nationwide.

Despite repeated requests from the government, most citizens appear to still not adhere to social distancing rules, causing a fresh surge in the country that until recently had kept coronavirus deaths in double digits.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister’s National Task Force on Science and Technology Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman has said a vaccine for the coronavirus would be available in Pakistan in the next two months.

He reiterated that the first priority would be given to healthcare workers, adding that the process to vaccinate the entire population would take some time due to a large population.

Originally published at Pakistan today