Covid-19 death toll hits 7,000 mark

The novel coronavirus death toll in the country hit the 7,000 mark on Tuesday after 23 more people lost their lives to Covid-19, as the second wave of the contagion continued to spread its tentacles with the emergence of 1,637 new cases, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) reported on Tuesday.

According to the latest data released by the NCOC – the nerve centre to articulate unified national effort against Covid-19, the number of active cases across the country crossed the 20,045 mark. The total number of virus cases across the country has now risen to 346,476, while 319,431 have recovered.

It stated that 21 coronavirus patients died in hospitals while two died elsewhere on Monday. It added that Sindh’s death toll reached 2,687 with three fatalities on Monday; Punjab’s hit 2,420 with 12 deaths; Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) 1,290 with two casualties; Islamabad 244 with three deaths, Balochistan 154, Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) 93; and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 112 with three fatalities.

No Covid-19 affected person was on ventilator in AJK, G-B and Balochistan while 177 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in Pakistan, out of 1,855 ventilators allocated for virus patients.

A total of 31,904 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 12,343 in Sindh, 9,130 in Punjab, 4,037 in K-P, 5,065 in Islamabad Capital Territory, 528 in Balochistan, 370 in G-B, and 431 in AJK.

Around 319,431 people have recovered from the disease so far across the country, making it a significant count with over 90 per cent recovery ratio of the affected patients.

A total of 4,741,507 corona tests have been conducted so far while 736 hospitals are equipped with Covid-19 treatment facilities. Some 1,181 corona patients were admitted to hospitals across the country.

Further, several areas in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan were declared coronavirus hotspots and put under lockdown after 400 new cases were reported in Punjab for the first time since July 18, according to the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department on Tuesday.

It added that all markets, shopping malls, restaurants and offices would remain closed in these areas while movement would be restricted and all public gathering banned.