PESHAWAR: The authorities have closed down 250-bed facility at Lady Reading Hospital after decline in the number of Covid-19 patients.

LRH spokesperson man Mohammad Asim told Dawn that the complex, which received a total of 802 Covid-19 patients since April, would soon be housing the cardiology and thoracic departments that were shifted temporarily to pave the way for patients when the pandemic reached its peak.

“The hospital recorded 270 deaths and 630 recoveries during the patients but more than 80 per cent of the patients, who passed away, had underlying health conditions like liver, heart and lungs problems,” he said.

Mr Asim said that they allocated 25 beds at the old chest ward for possible cases but the dedicated complex was vacated for its primary functions.

During the last one week, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa saw one death from Covid-19 while number of confirmed cases remained below 40 on average per day.

Report says KP registered only 48 new cases during last 24 hours

A report by World Health Organisation said that the province reported 48 new cases of Covid-19 during the last 24 hours, raising the total number of patients notified since the beginning of the outbreak to 36,711 with 1,256 deaths.

The province has 3.42 per cent case fatality rate (CFR), higher that the nationwide 2.12 per cent.

Currently, 52 confirmed patients have been hospitalised and 44 of them are in critical position while nine are on ventilators. The province has reported 34,474 or 94 per cent recoveries from the pandemic, according to the report.

Presently, Khyber Teaching Hospital has a total of nine Covid-19 patients including two on ventilators. Of the total 17 patients in Hayatabad Medical Complex, three are on ventilators.

The health experts say that on average 2,200 tests are being conducted but the positivity rate has come down to 2-3 per cent.

The WHO report said that 26,228 or 71 per cent of the infected people were males and 10,484 or 29 per were females while the dead included 939 or 75 per cent males and 317 or 25 per cent females.

The health department has already closed down the corona wards established in the institute of hepatology.

A week after Eidul Fitr, the government had planned to sign memorandum of understanding with private hospitals when Covid-19 cases increased and public hospitals almost ran out of beds towards the end of June.

However, following steep decline in the number of patients, the health system is going towards normalcy. The outpatients departments have been reopened and elective services are also provided to patients throughout the province while testing process of the suspected patients is in progress.

Officials said that KP recorded more than 1,800 suspected patients during the last 24 hours.

The WHO report said that Pakistan reported 330 new cases during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases notified since the outbreak of the pandemic to 299,233 with 6,350 deaths.

Of the total 6,726 currently active cases, 1,047 have been hospitalized and 606 or 57.87 per cent of them are in critical condition.

The country has a total of 5,679 patients, who have been isolated at designated isolation facilities or in their homes.

A total of 286,157 or 95.63 per cent patients have recovered and discharged from the hospitals.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2020