PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded seven more deaths due to Covid-19 as government is set to start pool testing to be able to ensure prompt diagnosis of the patients and manage them in isolation facilities to prevent spread of infection.

Five of the deceased belonged to Peshawar and two to Kurram tribal district while 98 new cases were reported during the last 24 hours taking the province-wide tally of deaths to 67 and active patients to 1,235, according to health department’s report released on Monday. It said that 267 patients recovered from the ailment.

Following upsurge in cases, the health department has been trying multiple options to increase testing capacity. The latest is the trial of pool testing for early detection of Covid-19 cases.

“We are in very early phase and working to validate it. The public health reference laboratory (PHRL) has the experience and capacity to do pool testing,” Prof Arshad Javaid, the vice-chancellor of Khyber Medical University (KMU), told Dawn.

The province has recorded 1,235 active patients so far

He said that under that mechanism, they could process a large number of samples quickly by using lesser kits. He said that the technique of pooling was used when frequency of disease was low, less than 5 per cent but ideally less than 1 per cent.

Prof Arshad said that specimen from multiple patients were pooled and analysed as one patient. “If this is negative, it means all the patients in the pool are negative. If this is positive, then we do individual patients’ analysis. It saves reagents. Many negative patients can be screened out at once. It has drawbacks too,” he added.

He said that they were working on it and had done quite a lot of experiments to find the best place for it but they were confident that it would work. “We are trying to find the most appropriate group. For example, people coming from abroad needing screening and groups where the incidence is supposed to be less than 5 per cent,” he added.

According to him, more than 6,544 tests have been conducted so far and 1,102 are positive while 5,064 are negative. “In next few weeks, we would be conducting 1,000 tests per day. Our existing testing capacity has gone to 700 per day from 100 a month ago,” he said.

Provincial Minister for Finance and Health Taimur Khan Jhagra told Dawn that they were conducting trials for pool testing.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Covid-19, Dr Faisal Sultan said that they were recommending pool testing to all the provinces because it was very good. He told this correspondent that that few laboratories in Pakistan had started it.

“National Institute of Health Islamabad, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre Lahore and Aga Khan University Karachi are doing it,” he said.

Our correspondent from Parachinar adds: A man and a woman, who died of Covid-19, both had pre-existing health conditions as the former was suffering from cancer whereas the latter was having heart and kidneys ailment.

Kurram Deputy Commissioner Shah Fahad said that the woman was around 60 and the man was aged 50 and both belonged to central Kurram. He said that the deceased had expired in Peshawar and their bodies were shifted to Kurram.

The official said that samples were collected from the deceased that tested positive on Sunday after which samples were collected from their close relatives, who were in contact with them.

Our correspondent from Battagram adds: The samples of a 70-year-old man, who died four days ago, tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday night.

According to head of Covid-19 control room Khalid Khan, the deceased had come from Islamabad and visited rural health centre in Kuzabanda. His throat swab had sent to NIH Islamabad.

Later, he was shifted to district headquarters hospital where he passed away before receiving result of his test. Samples of five other persons including deputy medical superintendent of the hospital and family members of the deceased were collected and sent to laboratory.

Our correspondent from Khar adds: The first death of Covid-19 patient was reported in Bajaur tribal district, officials said on Monday.

Dr Fazal Rahman, focal person for coronavirus, told journalists that a 70-year-old man, who died on Sunday, was declared positive for the coronavirus a day after his death.

He said that the sample of the patient was obtained on Sunday morning. He said that it was the first death of coronavirus patient in the district. However, he said nothing about the travel of the deceased.

The tribal district has so far recorded 13 cases of coronavirus.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2020