ISLAMABAD: Coronavirus positivity ratio in Pakistan has dropped below three percent after February 14, 2021 as the country reported 1,383 Covid-19 cases after 46,882 tests were conducted countrywide. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 53 coronavirus patients lost their lives across the country in the past 24 hours taking the national death tally to 21,376, while total coronavirus cases tally has reached 935,013 cases since the pandemic outbreak in February 2020.

The Covid-19 active cases tally has also dropped below 50,000 mark and at present, there are 46,190 active cases in the country. At least 2,516 recoveries were reported countrywide in the past 24 hours. Punjab and Sindh reported bulk of the Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours as 35 people lost their lives in Punjab and eight in Sindh.

According to the NCOC data, Pakistan so far has reported 867,447 recoveries, which is over 92 percent. The health authorities over the past 24 hours carried out a total 46,882 tests across the country of which 1,383 were positive, which is 2.94 percent of the total tests.

The authorities carried out 15,115 tests in Sindh, 18,948 in Punjab, 7,824 in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), 3,033 in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,210 in Balochistan, 419 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and 333 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

Some 3,446 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country of which 3,196 Covid infected patients are under treatment in intensive care units (ICUs) in various Covid dedicated healthcare facilities.

Since the pandemic outbreak, Punjab has reported 342,805 Covid-19 cases, Sindh 324,535 cases, KPK 134,781 cases, ICT 81,806, Balochistan 25,893, AJK 19,538, and GB 5,655 cases.

Punjab with 10,349 Covid-19 deaths is on the top followed by Sindh with 5,144 Covid-19 deaths, KPK 4,164 deaths of which six died in the past 24 hours, the ICT 766 deaths of which one died in the past 24 hours, AJK 556 deaths of which two died in the past 24 hours, Balochistan 290 deaths of which one died in the past 24 hours, and GB, so far has reported 107 deaths.

Ventilator occupancy has also dropped to 402 ventilators, which a week ago was over 500, while at present, there are no ventilators occupied in Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Balochistan.

Multan with 57 percent ventilator occupancy is on top among the four regions with maximum utilisation of ventilators followed by Bahawalpur 38 percent, Lahore 29 percent and Peshawar 23 percent.

According to NCOC, on Monday 353,068 vaccines were administered across Pakistan on June 7 taking the total vaccine administered till now to 9,559,910. Meanwhile, the federal government has made Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for all the adult family members of the federal government employees.

The NCOC in this connection has officially written letter to the secretaries of all the federal ministries and divisions directing them to ensure the vaccination of all the employees working with the ministries/divisions.

The NCOC has further directed the federal secretaries to ask the employees to submit Covid-19 vaccination certificate of their families with the ministry/division.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021