COVID-19 claims 41 lives, infects 4,525 more people

The national tally on Monday of total active COVID-19 cases recorded was 46,663 with 4,525 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 2,268 people recovered from the disease during the last 24 hours.

Forty-one corona patients have died during past 24 hours, 38 of whom were under treatment in hospital and three out of the hospital in their respective quarantines or homes, according to the latest update issued by the National command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

During the last 24 hours most of the deaths had occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa followed by the Punjab. Out of the total 41 deaths occured during last 24 hours, 12 of the deceased had died on ventilators during their treatment.

The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Multan 67 percent, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) 64 percent, Gujranwala 60 percent and Lahore 52 percent. The maximum Oxygen beds (alternate oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per medical requirement of COVID patient) were also occupied in four major areas of Gujrat 70 percent, Gujranwala 85 percent, Peshawar 78 percent and Swat 73 percent.

Around 387 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no COVID affected person was on ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan.

Some 40,369 tests were conducted across the country on Sunday, including 9,140 in Sindh, 15,780 in Punjab, 8,196 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 5,359 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 758 in Balochistan, 377 in GB, and 759 in AJK.

Around 598,197 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 659,116 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 12,484, Balochistan 19,525, GB 5,010, ICT 56,450, KP 85,531, Punjab 215,227 and Sindh 264,889. About 14,256 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion. Around 4,491 have perished in Sindh.

6,246 in Punjab had died with 17 deaths occured in past 24 hours. 16 of them in the hospitals and one out of hospital. 2,301 in KP where 17 of them died in hospitals and one out of hospital on Sunday, 561 in ICT among two deaths in hospitals during past 24 hours, 206 in Balochistan, 103 in GB and 348 in AJK among three of them succumbed to the deadly virus in hospital and one out of hospital on Sunday.

A total of 10,107,095 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 631 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Some 3,648 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.

However, the past 24 hours positivity ratio with higher magnitude in various districts across the country was also issued highlighting increasing disease prevalence.

The districts with high positivity ratio as on 28th March including Gujrat 7 percent, Bahawalpur 8 percent, Faisalabad 15 percent Gujranwala10 percent, Lahore 17 percent, Mandi Bahauddin 11percent, Multan 12 percent, Okara 9 percent, Rahim Yar Khan 9 percent,Rawalpindi 15 percent, Sargodha 12 percent, Sialkot 12 percent, Toba Tek Singh 9 percent, Peshawar 22 percent, Swat 23 percent, Nowshehra 19 percent, Dir Lower 8 percent, Malakand 12 percent and Swabi 12 percent.

It may be mentioned here that the Covid positivity ratio was the percentage of actual positive cases appearing in every 100 tests performed to identify infected individuals.

According to John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the percent positive will be high if the number of positive tests is too high, or if the number of total tests is too low. A higher percent positive suggests higher transmission and that there are likely more people with coronavirus in the community who haven’t been tested yet.