PESHAWAR: Twenty-five more persons succumbed to Covid-19 and 468 more cases were recorded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as positivity rate for the virus remained more than 10 per cent in Peshawar and Mardan, the hardest-hit districts of the province, for a week.

Health officials blamed non-adherence to Covid-19 precautions for surging positivity in both the districts as the district administration continued to seal shops, restaurants, cinema halls and arrest and penalise people for not wearing masks and ignoring social distancing in Peshawar.

On Tuesday, the administration sealed Shama Cinema, Aina Cinema, Arshad Cinema and Sabrina Cinema and arrested the managers for violating Covid-19 SOPs, a press release said.

It said that 35 shops and four restaurants were sealed while eight drivers were arrested and their vehicles were impounded for not following the directives of the administration regarding Covid-19.

Deputy Commissioner Khalid Mahmood also said that all traders, transporters and people should abide by the government’s directives regarding the Covid-19 precautions to interrupt transmission of the virus.

“There will be no concession with those not taking the situation seriously. Nobody can evade action. We can go back to normal way of life only when the infection subsides,” he said.

A health department’s report said that the provincial count of fatalities swelled to 5,155 and cases reached 165,980 since the onset of the infection in the province.

Of the total infected persons, 153,204 patients (92 per cent), including 803 recorded during the last 24 hours, have already recovered while the number of active coronavirus cases is 7,621 in the province. A total of 10,516 suspected patients were tested in the province, it said. The deceased persons included 60 per cent men and 40 per cent women. The virus has infected 66 per cent men and 34 per cent women.

Kohat topped the list of mortalities as seven people passed away from the virus in the district.

Six died due to the virus in Peshawar where 11.4 percent positivity was recorded. The capital city, also diagnosed 149 new patients. Overall, Peshawar has reported 2,460 mortalities and 60,337 infections, the highest number recorded by any district in the province. It has 1,601 active cases and 55 per cent Covid-19 beds in the district remain filled.

Three coronavirus patients breathed their last in Swat and Dera Ismail Khan.

Positivity rate in Swat, another high-risk district, was reported 4.3 per cent but vaccination against Covid-19 was very slow there. Bed occupancy in Swat was 56 per cent.

Two people lost their lives to virus in Dir Upper and one each in Mardan, Abbottabad and Lakki Marwat. Mardan is not reporting many casualties in the fourth wave of the virus but positivity rate is 11.4 per cent in the district. Bed occupancy in Mardan is 42 per cent.

Another virus-hit district Swabi recorded 41 new cases where infectivity of coronavirus swabs was reported 9.1 per cent. Bed occupancy in Swabi was 71 per cent.

Officials said that the province’s tally of hospitalisation was on the rise as about 1,700 patients were admitted to different hospitals of the province. They said that 62 of the admitted patients were serious and on ventilators while 6350 persons were in quarantine.

Swat has 4.9 per cent case fatality rate (CFR), Dera Ismail Khan 4.6 per cent, Mardan and Abbottabad 4.4 per cent each, Peshawar 4.1 and Bannu 4 per cent. Overall positivity in the province is 3 per cent.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2021