PESHAWAR: Thirty-two more people died of Covid-19 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the positivity level in Mardan swelled to 26.9 per cent followed by Peshawar’s 25 per cent and Nowshera’s 22.9 per cent in a countrywide list of highly-infected districts on Sunday.

The overall tally of the province crossed 100,000 mark. The province has seven per cent positivity for Covid-19.

A report by WHO shows that five districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have reported high positivity among the 17 high-burdened districts of the country. Mardan, Peshawar and Nowshera stayed on first, second and third position of the countrywide positivity list.

The other two districts are Swat with 11.2 per cent positivity rate and Abbottabad with 1.6 per cent positivity rate.

Daily situation Covid-19 report released by provincial health department said that eight more people died in Peshawar, six in Swat, five in Mardan, three each in Charsadda, Swabi and Nowshera, two each in Abbottabad and Bajaur due to the pandemic.

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The provincial mortalities from the virus are now 2,899 with Peshawar accounting for 1,511, Mardan for 217, Haripur for 180, Swat for 202, Swabi for 108 and Kohat accounting for 96.

The province recorded 1,062 new infections during the last 24 hours. According to the report, Peshawar detected 332 cases, Mardan 162, Swabi and Charsadda 63 each, Dir Lower 54 and Abbottabad 51 while the remaining districts registered fewer cases.

The total tally of the cases in the province is 10, 6500. The virus is widespread with nearly all districts reporting infections among the citizens.

Of the total patients, 89,853 (84 per cent) have recovered. The report said that 634more patients recovered during the last 24 hours. There is continuous rise in active cases, the count of which has risen to 13,614.

There are 103 coronavirus patients in Khyber Teaching Hospital, 146 in Hayatabad Medical Complex, 402 in Lady Reading Hospital and 61 in Covid-19 Hospital Nishartabad.

There are 1,567 hospitalised patients of coronavirus throughout the province with 72 of them on ventilators. The health department has allocated 2,385 beds for Covid-19 patients in the hospitals and is making efforts to increase capacity for coronavirus wards in view of the hike in the cases during the third wave of the pandemic.

Overall case fatality rate (FCR) in the province is 2.6 per cent while it is 4.2 per cent in Mardan, 3.9 per cent in Abbottabad, 3.7 per cent in Swabi and 3.6 per cent in Peshawar. After Peshawar, which has reported most deaths and cases in the province, Mardan and Swat are detecting more cases as well as mortalities during the third wave of the pandemic.

Officials said that the three districts were reporting more cases and deaths since the first wave of the infection started in early February last year. The reason for increase in cases and mortalities is that people are not following the standard operating procedures, including social distancing, avoidance of hand shake and use of sanitizers.

“We are looking towards the administration to strictly impose the precautionary measures as the virus is spreading with an alarming pace and if the situation remains the same, the hospitals will run out of beds,” they said.

According to officials, Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz has been supervising the situation and has been instructing the home and tribal affairs department to ensure the enforcement of the precautions. Alongside the testing and management of Covid-19 patients, the health department was tracing the nearest contacts of the confirmed patients, they said.

Physicians at the hospitals are also worried about the rising number of patients and want the government to ensure SOPs to put brakes on transmission of the virus. So far, about 100 health workers have died of the virus in the province and the third wave has proved more fatal for them.

Meanwhile, Awami National Party provincial president Aimal Wali Khan quarantined himself in Wali Bagh, Charsadda, on Monday after he tested positive for coronavirus.

According to a statement issued from Bacha Khan Markaz in Peshawar, ANP spokesperson Samar Haroon Bilour confirmed the report and appealed to party workers and general public to pray for the early recovery of their party leader.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2021