PESHAWAR: With the coronavirus incidence and positivity rate continuously declining in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the doctors have asked the people to adhere to precautionary measures against the virus for own and others’ protection.

Nine more people lost life to the virus and 249 were diagnosed with it in the province on Saturday.

The doctors said the people shouldn’t ignore guidelines on Covid-19 following a decline in cases to prevent another wave of the virus.

They said last year, too, when the government ended lockdowns due to the declining virus incidence, the people got relaxed causing the incidence to rise.

The doctors said the people should continue adhering to preventive steps and get themselves vaccinated to stem the spread of Covid-19.

They said the coronavirus positivity rate had dropped in all high-risk districts during the last one week.

However, Peshawar district, the hardest-hit in the province since the outbreak of coronavirus in Feb last year, is an exception.

Experts ask people to adhere to precautionary measures against virus

The doctors said there was no room for laxity, so the people should continue using face mask and hand sanitisers, avoiding crowds, and observing social distancing.

They said a decline in coronavirus cases was a good sign but the people should stick to SOPs as the virus was still around and the next few years, the people had to use face masks, wash hands and avoid crowds.

They said the government should continue with lockdowns in high-risk district, especially Peshawar, Swabi, Mardan, Swat and Abbottabad, which had most active cases with higher chances of the spread of the virus.

The officials said district administration and district health officers had played a significant role in bringing the cases down but compliance with SOPs was extremely important.

“If we ignore SOPs, the cases may surge last year following a decline. It is the lockdown, which has caused the incidence and deaths to go down,” CEO of the Health Net Hospital, Peshawar, Prof Syed Amjad Taqweem told Dawn.

He said the people would know about it only when restrictions were lifted and life got to normal.

Prof Amjad said the high virus incidence made a comeback last year after restrictions were lifted.

He said lockdowns couldn’t be imposed forever, so vaccination should continue and restrictions should be placed on unnecessary public gatherings only.

The expert said only those with complete or partial immunity against the virus would survive.

Meanwhile, a health department report said deaths from coronavirus in the province had reached 4,144 and cases 134,321 since its outbreak.

It said three more people died of the virus in Peshawar, two each in Mardan and Abbottabad, one each in Swat and Dera Ismail Khan.

According to the report, the number of recoveries from the infection got more than new patients. A total of 502 more patients recovered in the 24 hours. Until now, 125,859 (93 per cent) of the patients have recovered.

The report put the number of active Covid-19 cases in the province at 4,318 and said 8,713 tests were conducted in the province.

A report prepared by the World Health Organisation said the Covid-19 positivity rate reached 7.2 per cent in Peshawar, 4.8 per cent in Mardan, 4.2 per cent in Swat, four per cent in Abbottabad and 2.1 per cent in Mansehra.

The province’s overall positivity rate was 7.2 per cent.

The report said 799 coronavirus patients were currently admitted to hospitals and 34 of them were on ventilator, 441 on high-flow oxygen and 324 on low-flow oxygen.

It added that the case fatality rate was three per cent in the province, 4.6 per cent in Mardan, 4.1 per cent in Swabi and four per cent in Swat.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2021