PESHAWAR: As Covid-19 cases continue to decline during the last two weeks, the virus has infected about 120 children below the age of 10 years in the last one month and killed three in same age group since the onset of the pandemic in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

More deaths due to the pandemic and cases were recorded among men.

The disease has infected 435 persons in the age group of 11 to 20 years since its advent in February last year, according to a report prepared by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter of World Health Organisation (WHO).

The most vulnerable age group, according to the report, is people between 61 to 70 years in the province. In this age group, 1,690 persons have died due to the virus, followed by the patients falling in the 51 to 60 years age group with 1,562 mortalities.

Positivity rate for infection in province dips below 4pc

The report said that 871 people between 71 to 80 years died of the virus whereas 772 passed away of it in the age group of 41 to 50 years. It said that 258 people aged 31 to 40 years also breathed their last during the pandemic whereas 94 people in the age group of 21 to 30 years died due to Covid-19.

It said that the number of people died of the pandemic in age group of 81 to 90 years was 297 while 65 others, who died of the infection, were between 91 to 110 years of age.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has so far recorded 5,650 mortalities since the outbreak of Covid-19, which included 3,342 (59 per cent) men and 2,308 (39 per cent) women. Of the total 176,048 infections registered in the province, 111,592 (63 per cent) were men and 64,456 (37 per cent) were women.

Among the 3,670 active patients currently in the province, 2,155 (59 per cent) were men and 1,515 (41 per cent) were women, said the report. So far, 3.1 per cent of the infected persons have died of the ailment while 94 per cent have recovered.

The virus infected 4,387 healthcare providers, who got the virus from the patients in hospitals. They included 2,058 (46 per cent) doctors, 1,715 (39 per cent) paramedics and other health workers and 614 (14 per cent) nurses.

The report said that the number of infected male health workers was 3,131 (72 per cent) and female 1,256 (28 per cent). The virus killed 44 healthcare providers including doctors, nurses and paramedics.

Peshawar, the provincial capital with 2,700 of the total fatalities, accounted for 47.7 per cent of the total deaths due to Covid-19 in the province.

Mardan with 544 deaths, contributed 9.6 per cent of the total persons fallen to the coronavirus while Swat with 514 deaths, accounted for 9 per cent mortalities. Abbottabad contributed 6.4 per cent (366) mortalities and Kohat lost 214 people to the virus which is 3.7 per cent of the overall deaths occurred due to pandemic. Swabi recorded 201 deaths which is 3.5 per cent of the province-wide fatalities.

Meanwhile, the positivity level for the virus in the high-risk district was reported below four per cent. Peshawar, the hardest-hit district, reported 4.7 per cent positivity rate, the highest in the province.

The number of admitted patients in the provincial hospitals was 520 which included 40 on ventilators while 3,140 people were under quarantine in the province.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2021