ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi on Saturday tested positive for Covid-19, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan and PTI Senator Faisal Javed said. “The prime minister has isolated himself at home after he tested positive,” Sultan announced in a tweet here. On Thursday, the prime minister received Covid-19 vaccine jab and had appealed to the masses to continue exercising precaution in view of the third wave of the pandemic.
Senator Javed confirmed that first lady Bushra Bibi has contracted Covid-19, hours after Prime Minister Imran Khan tested positive for the virus.
Taking to Twitter, the newly-elected Senator said that a lots of prayers for all who have been tested positive including Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.
“May God give them a speedy recovery. Stay Safe!!!” he said. Another PTI leader and SAPM Zulfi Bukhari wished First Lady Bushra Bibi and Imran Khan speedy recovery.
“Vaccines are safe and must be taken, #PMIK had his first shot just a day ago, before which he was exposed already,” he said while urging people to get themselves vaccinated while rubbishing aside fake news regarding inoculation.
Earlier, while talking to mediapersons, Sultan said that the national Covid-19 positivity ratio had doubled in the past few days reaching 9.5 percent from four.
He said that the Covid cases were increasing for the past two weeks, and urged the citizens to strictly follow Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to prevent the spread of the disease in the wake of a sudden increase in the number of infections in the country.
“We regularly monitor the positivity ratio at national, provincial and city levels and when it increases it incurs a burden on the healthcare capacity. The pressure is mounting in the federal capital, Peshawar, Karachi, and major urban centers of Punjab.”
He said that keeping in view the disease risk; certain restrictions were imposed focusing on high-risk sectors with mass gathering.
However, he said that an overall poor administrative compliance of guidelines and actions was seen, and requested all the provincial administrations to seriously take note of that.
He said that there were certain variants of the virus originating from the African states where travel restrictions would be imposed to contain the disease spread.
He said that senior citizens’ walk-in registration was introduced for citizens of above 70 years of age, and now they could visit all listed vaccination centers for vaccination.
He said that that was not the time of any complacency rather strict compliance of the SOPs was needed.
“Covid-19 is a deadly virus but we can control it just as we controlled it by following the SOPs during the first wave.”
Dr Sultan said that the government was seeking complete cooperation of the citizens in adhering to the SOPs.
“We can save precious lives including those of our near and dear ones by taking preventive measures.”
He asked the citizens to wear a mask, maintain social distance, wash hands with soap frequently, and avoid crowded places.
He said that two tranches of procured vaccine would reach by the end of the month.
He urged the healthcare workers and those eligible to get vaccinated to protect themselves as well as their loved ones.
He said that better services were being ensured at the Covid-19 vaccination centers to facilitate the senior citizens.
He said that keeping in view the interest of the senior citizens for Covid vaccination, the staff and number of centers were being increased.
According to the latest coronavirus figures released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) here on Saturday, the country tested 3,876 more people corona positive after 40,946 tests were conducted.
The national positivity ratio has gone up to 9.46 percent.
After the detection of 3,876 new Covid-19 cases, the national tally has reached 623,135, of which 579,760 people have recovered, and the active cases in the country have also increased to 27,188, which a week ago were below 20,000.
Pakistan in the past 24 hours has reported 42 more coronavirus deaths, taking the nationwide death tally to 13,799.
Punjab with 5,944 Covid-19 deaths is on top of which 25 were reported in the past 24 hours, followed by Sindh with 4,478 deaths of which five deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) with 2,202 deaths of which six died on Friday, the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) with 539 deaths of which three died in the past 24 hours, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) with 330 deaths of which two were reported in the past 24 hours, Balochistan with 203 deaths one of them died on Friday, and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) with 103 deaths.
Since the pandemic outbreak, Pakistan has detected a total 623,135 Covid-19 cases including deaths, recovered and those under treatment.
Sindh with 262,796 cases is on top followed by the Punjab with 195,087 cases, KPK with 78,653 cases, the ICT with 50,843 cases, Balochistan with 19,306 cases, the AJK with 11,483 cases, and G-B with 4,967 cases.
A total of 9,732,033 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 631 hospitals are equipped with Covid facilities. Some 2,657 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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