PESHAWAR: Twenty-five more persons died and 783 Covid-19 patients were detected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday amid door-to-door vaccination in Peshawar division to prevent the rapid transmission of the virus.

Peshawar division is home to most coronavirus-related deaths and incidence as compared to the other six divisions in the province.

The province’s tally of deaths due to the virus reached 4,797 including 61 per cent men and 39 per cent women. The number of cases is 157,148 in the province with 66 per cent in men and 34 per cent in women.

A report of health department said that 92 per cent of the positive patients, including 561 recorded during the last 24 hours, have recovered from the infection. A total of 11,814 suspected people were tested, it added.

Infection positivity rate reaches 15.1pc in Peshawar

The provincial capital also diagnosed 347 new patients, Mansehra 63, Mardan 53, Chitral Lower and Kohat 40 each, Swabi 38, Dera Ismail Khan 34, Haripur 32, Bannu 24, Swat 18, Nowshera and Abbottabad 16 each, Chitral Upper 14, Kurram and Karak 12 each and Dir Lower and Upper recorded 11 cases each.

Door-to-door immunisation against the pandemic was launched in Peshawar division consisting of the districts of Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mohmand and Khyber, which had registered more than half of the provincial causalities and infections.

Peshawar district recorded 14 new deaths due to the infection while Nowshera and Swat registered two each and one each case was dected in in Mardan, Malakand, Abbottabad, Kohat, Hangu, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan.

Infectivity level in Peshawar, the hardest-hit district of the province, soared to 15.1 per cent as the district administration continued door-to-door vaccination for the third day, a press release said.

Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz has instructed the district administrations in five districts of Peshawar division to enhance immunisation against Covid-19 and ensure enforcement of standard operating procedure to prevent transmission of the virus.

The deputy commissioner of Peshawar Khalid Mahmood and additional deputy commissioners Gul Bano, ShamaNiamat and Mohammad Imran Khan also visited the areas currently under the lockdown to ensure taking precautionary measures by people.

The officials of Regional Transport Authority also visited Bus Rapid Transit, Motorway Interchange and other transport stations in the city and urged the people to get immunised and wear masks, observe social distancing and hand hygiene to be able to deal with the fourth wave of the pandemic.

The press release said that during inspections, 182 persons were penalised on the spot for violation of Covid-19 preventive measures.

The administration officials also met shopkeepers in Karkhano Market in connection with Covid-19 awareness and informed them about free vaccination programme against coronavirus.

The deputy commissioner said that the drive to scale up immunisations and efforts to ensure adherence to SOPs in the district would continue to make sure that people stayed safe from the infection. He said that keeping in view the threat posed by rapid spread of virus in the district, all people needed to receive jabs at the vaccination centres.

The province has 7,658 active coronavirus cases including 57 per cent men and 43 per cent women. Overall positivity for coronavirus in the province is 6.1 per cent. Abbottabad has recorded 10.2 per cent positivity and Mardan 8.9 per cent.

The report said that bed occupancy in Peshawar was 52 per cent, in Abbottabad 75 per cent, in Swat 83 per cent, in Swabi 67 per cent, in Mardan 36 per cent and in Nowshera 38 per cent.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2021