PESHAWAR: Death toll from Covid-19 reached 731 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after 24 more people including Dr Abbas Tariq, head of anaesthesia department at Institute of Kidney Disease, passed away due to the virus on Tuesday.

Dr Abbas Tariq was admitted to Hayatabad Medical Complex on June 5 where he showed signs of improvement. He was shifted to Institute of Kidney Disease (IKD).

On Tuesday, his condition deteriorated and was put on ventilator support but couldn’t survive. Dr Abbas, in his mid-50s, is the seventh doctor, who has died of Covid-19 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to Provincial Doctors Association.

A health department report on Covid-19 said that 635 new patients were detected in the province, raising overall count of cases in the province to 19,107.

Death toll in the province reaches 731

Peshawar recorded 14 deaths from the pandemic, the highest number of people killed by the virus in the provincial capital in a single day since the advent of the epidemic so far.

The number of deaths due to Covid-19 in Peshawar stands at 366 or 50 per cent of the province-wide mortalities. It reported 170 new Covid-19 patients, raising total number of cases in the district to 6,563. The city is leading both in terms of confirm Covid-19 patients as well as number of people fallen to the pandemic so far.

Two persons succumbed to the infection in Kohat district where number of dead persons reached 23. The district also diagnosed 85 new patients and number of total cases reached 377.

Mardan, Swabi, Buner, Dir Lower, Dir Upper, Malakand, Kurram and Bannu recorded one death each, raising the number of mortalities in these districts to 40, 15, 19, 9, 27, five and three respectively.

Abbottabad reported 56 new cases where total confirmed patients are now 760. The district has also recorded 34 deaths from the Covid-19 so far.

In Swat, where 64 persons have fallen to the virus so far, 42 more persons tested positive for coronavirus making its total count 1,797. The district has been second on the scorecard of deaths and positive cases of Covid-19 after Peshawar.

Malakand reported 28 new cases that made total of number virus-affected people in the district 1,010.

Khyber, Nowshera, Charsadda, Mansehra and Bajaur confirmed 27, 24, 16, 14 and 12 cases respectively. The total count of confirmed cases in these districts is now 523, 439, 520, 275 and 435 respectively. Battagram also reported 27 new patients where total cases reached 219. The district has reported 12 deaths from the pandemic so far.

The report indicated that 235 people, who tested positive for Covid-19, were declared recovered. So far, 4,922 patients have recovered from the infectious ailment.

So far, 1,937 persons have recovered from Covid-19 in Malakand division; 1,028 in Peshawar; 511 in Mardan; 472 in Hazara; 311 in Kohat; 130 in Dera Ismail Khan; and 85 in Bannu.

Meanwhile, a health department press release said that a total of 32 ventilated ICU beds and 144 HDU beds for Covid-19 patients were provided during the last 10 days to the provincial hospitals to cater to the load of the patients

It said that 19 ventilated ICU beds and 11 HDU beds were provided to Lady Reading Hospital, five ventilated ICU beds to Hayatabad Medical Complex and 36 HDU beds to Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar where most of the Covid-19 patients were being treated.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2020