PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded 20 fatalities and 966 new cases of coronavirus amid decline in positivity rate and rise in number of deaths compared to last week, according to a report.

Local physicians, however, say that the number of cases and mortalities due to the virus is higher than the reported ones because people are reluctant to get their patients tested and hospitalised despite being symptomatic.

A report of health department said that positive cases of coronavirus decreased by 23 per cent compared to a week before while deaths due to the pandemic increased by 8 per cent over the same period in the province.

It said that utilisation of high dependency units by Covid-19 patients decreased by 7pc, intensive care unit by 25pc and ventilator by 43pc in the corresponding period.

The province records 20 more deaths and 966 new cases

The number of deaths due to coronavirus in the province reached 6,153 and infections rose to 212, 078. Of the confirmed patients, 193,585 (90pc) persons including 1,372 recorded during the last 24 hours have recovered from the infectious ailment while the tally of active cases is 12,340 in the province.

The report said that Peshawar lost 11 more people to the pandemic that made its total count of fatalities 3,022, which was 50pc of the total deaths in the province. Three succumbed to the virus in Abbottabad, two in Swabi and one each in Mardan, Swat, Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan.

Peshawar, the hardest-hit district, diagnosed 326 new patients, Haripur 149, Mardan 112, Kohat 79, Mansehra 46, Malakand 45, Orakzai 41, Shangla 32, Bannu 31, Bajaur 23 and Swabi reported 20 new cases.

The report said that health department had not been able to reach the contacts of the patients in many districts. It said that ratio of contract tracing was 2pc in the province.

It said that in Peshawar, Kohat, Kurram, Khyber, Nowshera and Torghar, the ratio of contact tracing was below one per cent. Swabi recorded 13pc contract tracing. Contact tracing was reported 10.2pc in Bannu, 9.6pc in each Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, 8.6pc in Lakki Marwat, 7.9pc in Hangu, 7.3pc in Dir Upper and 5.1pc in Karak.

Physicians associated with the management of Covid-19 patients at the hospitals said that Omicron variant of the virus had become quite widespread as it infected people more rapidly than the previous ones. However, they said that people were not willing to be tested due to which the number of cases was lower than the real infections.

“There are community-based deaths from Covid-19. People hesitate to bring their patients to hospitals because they fear isolation in the community,” said a senior doctor at one of the medical teaching institutions in Peshawar.

He said that some patients breathed their last at the accident and emergency departments of the hospitals because they were brought at the terminal stage of their illnesses.

Mardan, another hotspot district, is recording deaths and cases almost daily but doctors say that people die in their homes but they are not shifted to hospitals by their relatives.

“Families members of such people think that shifting to hospitals wouldn’t save their patients but would earn wrath of the residents of the localities,” a Mardan-based physician said.

He said that many people wanted to bury their near and dear ones in accordance with religious teachings. They thought that people wouldn’t take part in the funeral prayers of their relatives dying of Covid-19 at hospitals, he added.

The doctor said that most of the patients passing away due to Covid-19 in age group above 60 years contracted the ailment from infected people in homes or in neighbourhoods. He said that youngsters were asymptomatic even after getting infected but they were potential transmitters of the virus to the people. He added that elderly people and those with underlying ailments were at risk.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2022