PESHAWAR: With coronavirus claiming 10 more lives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, has admitted three minor Covid-19 patients, including two girls.

According to the hospital’s doctors, the children are aged two months, six months and four years and two of them are in critical condition.

They told Dawn that those cases belonged to Peshawar, Lower Dir and Mardan and were kept in the hospital’s isolation centre.

Meanwhile, the health department said in a report that Peshawar recorded four deaths by coronavirus, Abbottabad two and Mardan, Swat, Lower Dir and Haripur one each in the day.Among the deceased was endocrinologist Dr Muzaffar Said, who died of coronavirus in the Saidu Teaching Hospital, Swat.

The Provincial Doctors’ Association said 37 doctors had lost life to coronavirus in the province.

It demanded Shuhada Package for them for sacrificing their lives to save others.

Also, the district health officer of Peshawar recommended to the deputy commissioner the closure of the Girls Higher Secondary School, Chamkani, after the detection of 10 cases among staff members and students.

The officials said of the cases, seven were teachers and other employees and the rest students.

They said the response of the administration to the recommendation was awaited.The experts warn that the second wave of coronavirus is likely to infect younger people, who stayed safe during the first wave.

“The second Covid-19 wave is more severe and is infecting youth as well,” Health Net Hospital CEO Prof Syed Amjad Taqweem told Dawn.

He said the virus could infect infants as well but it won’t be very common.

Prof Taqweem said the only way to reduce coronavirus-related deaths and incidence was adherence to precautionary measures.

A report prepared by the National Emergency Centre of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination showed that since the outbreak of coronavirus in the country earlier this year, 20 children aged 1-10 years had died of the virus.

It said the number of such deaths in 10-20 age group totalled 33.

The report said 15,568 coronavirus cases of that age bracket had been recorded in the country, while the number of virus patients aged 10-20 years was 38,329.

Experts said the Covid-19 deaths and incidence among younger people was ‘nominal’ during the first wave but the second wave of the infection was more virulent and could cause more such cases and deaths.

The health department’s report said death toll from coronavirus in the province went up to 1,521 and cases to 58,884 on Friday.

It added that Peshawar district was the worst hit by the pandemic as it recorded four virus deaths and 235 new cases, the highest in the province.

The report said Peshawar had 9.3 per cent Covid-19 positivity rate, while its case fatality rate was 3.5 per cent against the province’s overall 2.7 per cent. The national CFR stands at 2.02 per cent.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2020