PESHAWAR: Coronavirus claimed 29 more lives and infected 522 others in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday as senior physicians engaged in management of Covid-19 patients said that as long as big congregations and gatherings were avoided during Eidul Fitr, the spike in coronavirus cases wouldn’t occur.

“I don’t think we will have the same Covid-19 situation as that of India. We don’t have the Indian variant of virus i.e B1.617 which is more infectious and easily transmittable,” Prof Khalid Mahmood, a senior physician at Lady Reading Hospital, told Dawn when asked if situation could go India’s way.

He said that there would be no big congregations except for the Eid prayers. The prayers were going to be held at open grounds mostly having low risk of viral transmission.

“From now on with the start of summer, most of the activities are to be held in ventilated spaces or outdoor again decreasing the risk of viral transmission. The vaccination drive and the fact that most of the vulnerable population had the disease already also dampen the chances of infection,” said Prof Khalid.

Physicians issue warning about Eid gatherings

However, he said that adherence to standard operating procedure was must.

Prof Syed Amjad Taqweem, CEO of Health Net Hospital, said that the number of cases would definitely increase and deaths too but India like panic would not occur as in Pakistan dead were buried unlike India where they were cremated.

“So, India’s problems are religious congregations and IPL, causing a huge increase in cases. IPL attracts a lot of crowd on and off the field. Burning so many bodies to ashes requires a large amount of dry wood. The pollution caused as a result of fire smoke and smell across major cities creates unprecedented panic and media all across the globe puts more fuel on it,” he said in response to a query regarding Pakistan’s comparison with India with regard to Covid-19 patients.

“No, we can’t get to India like situation. However, we have to abide by the same universal Covid-19 restrictions including staying home, social distancing, wearing mask, hand washing, avoiding handshake, hugs and unnecessary meetings to avoid distressing situation. The virus will stay around for many years,” said Prof Amjad.

“Get used to it, pandemic comes to change lifestyle across the globe. We have probably seen nothing yet. It will mutate, re attack, settle then mutate again till Almighty changes it to benign form,” he said.

A report by health department said that number of mortalities reached 3,697 and cases were 125,914 in the province. It said that 113,520 patients had recovered from the infectious ailment including 814 more recorded during the last 24 hours.

The report said that the province had 8,697 active cases. A total of 7,486 tests were conducted across the province.

Peshawar, the epicentre of the virus, registered 16 deaths, Mardan four, Nowshera and Abbottabad three deaths each and Dir Upper, Kohat and Dera Ismail one each.

The health department said that it recorded 153 new cases in Peshawar, 52 in Mardan, 45 in Dera Ismail Khan, 38 in Swat, 37 in Charsadda, 32 in Dir Upper, 30 in Abbottabad, 24 in Nowshera, 19 in Chitral Lower, 17 in Malakand and 11 cases in Torghar.

Mardan recorded 17.3 per cent positivity for Covid-19 swabs, Peshawar 16.4, Nowshera 11.7, Abbottabad 7.1 and Swat registered 6 per cent positivity.

Health officials said that in a virtual meeting held on Saturday, Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz expressed concerns over creeping up deaths and coronavirus cases and instructed the home and tribal affairs department to take stern measures for enforcement of social distancing precautions.

He also met ulema and requested their support to enforce SOP during Eid, especially during first day’s prayers. Ulema assured him of their support on the occasion.

Officials said that the chief secretary said that non-compliance with SOP meant that the province would be struck by the virus. He said that religious scholars should play role to scale up awareness among people about precautions against the pandemic.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2021