PESHAWAR: The number of deaths caused by Covid-19 reached 879 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the passing away of 10 more persons due to the virus on Thursday, according to report.

A total of 416 cases were reported in the province, relatively a small number as compared to number of cases registered during the past one week mainly owing to smart lockdown enforced by the government in areas from where most patients were being reported. The total confirmed cases in the province are now 24,303, according to the report released by the health department.

The number of recoveries from Covid-19 has also been increasing for the past four days in the province as 352 more persons recovered from the infectious disease during the last 24 hours, taking the scorecard of the healed people from the virus to 11,449.

However, Peshawar, the provincial capital, still accounts for most deaths and new cases as it recorded four fresh fatalities and 166 more patients, making its tally of people fallen to the virus 426 and positive cases 8,423.

Total number of cases in the province is 24,303 now

Swat as usual is second to Peshawar in terms of deaths and cases as it reported death of two persons and 32 new patients afflicted with the pandemic. The number of people, who lost lives to the virus, in the district stands at 88 while total count of confirmed patients is 2,371.

Charsadda, Mardan, Dir Upper and Shangla reported one death each due the pandemic. Malakand reported 30 more patients. The district is on the third position after Peshawar and Swat as far as caseload is concerned. It has a total of 1,246 confirmed Covid-19 patients.

The number of patients in Kohat, which has so far recorded 25 fatalities from the virus, reached 460 with 14 new positive cases whereas 13 new patients were diagnosed positive for Covid-19 in Mardan, taking its overall tally of cases to 1,017. It has also reported 47 deaths from the virus so far.

A national report prepared by World Health Organisation shows that testing capacity of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has increased during the past few days.

As of Thursday, the province conducted 4,118 tests per one million people and stood fourth in term of testing nationwide.

Islamabad, the capital territory, has been conducting 55,099 tests per million population; Sindh 8,409; Gilgit-Baltistan 6,713; Punjab 3,743; Balochistan 3,680 and Azad Jammu and Kashmir 3,351. Nationwide 5,483 tests for Covid-19 are being done per million population.

The report said that Peshawar and Swat were among the high-burdened Covid-19 districts in the country. Of the total 571 serious patients, who were on ventilators, 91 were in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 264 in Punjab, 136 in Sindh, 79 in Islamabad and one in Balochistan.

Of the total 81,307 recovered patients, 39,429 hailed from Sindh, 20,262 from Punjab, 11,449 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 5,424 from Islamabad, 3,710 from Balochistan, 995 from Gilgit-Baltistan and 385 from Azad Jammu and Kashmir. In the entire country, 5,895 people were still admitted to Covid-19 facilities, which included 2,915 in Punjab, 1,506 in Sindh, 562 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 116 in AJK, 66 in Islamabad and 38 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The countrywide case fatality rate was 2.02 per cent, it said.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2020