National policy framed to initiate Rapid Antigen Testing, NCOC told

National positivity ratio at 6pc

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was informed on Tuesday that a national policy has been framed to initiate Rapid Antigen Testing to detect the novel coronavirus swiftly.

The nation's nerve centre for monitoring the pandemic was briefed that the step has been taken based on the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other guidelines in place.

Briefing the forum, the executive director of NIH said provinces have been taken on board to devise a 'unified strategy' to conduct Antigen Testing as per international standards.

The forum was further informed that initially, all government-authorised public sector laboratories can perform the tests for specified categories.

However, testing by private labs will be at the discretion of provincial authorities and only those labs will be allowed to conduct Antigen tests which are already performing the Covid-19 PCR test, endorsing data in the national and provincial hub and are officially authorised to conduct the tests by regional or provincial authorities.

Provincial representatives attending the meeting informed the forum that all necessary arrangements were being made at all major hospitals to conduct Antigen tests.

The number of Covid-19 cases in the country have crossed the 400,000 mark, with 2,458 cases emerging during the previous 24-hour period. At least 67 people succumbed to the virus during the same time period.

The national positivity ratio has been recorded at 6pc, with the highest observed in Mirpur at 20.62pc, followed by Peshawar at 19.58pc and Hyderabad at 19.03pc.

At least 2,165 patients are deemed critical and the NCOC said the number is ‘rising fast’.

Positivity ratio in various federating units is as follows: AJK 14.5pc, Balochistan 9.4pc. G-B 2.6pc, Islamabad 4.3pc, K-P 3.8pc, Punjab 3.5pc and Sindh 10.1pc.

Among the major urban centers of the country, Lahore has a positivity ratio of 3.19pc, Rawalpindi is at 9.27pc, Faisalabad is at 9.25pc, Multan 10.66pc, Karachi has a ratio of 13.86pc, and Quetta is at 10.76pc.

Earlier on Monday, the NCOC was informed that about 5,082 smart lockdowns were in place across Pakistan and the country's virus positivity ratio had jumped to 8.53%.

Around 2.05 million people are currently under lockdown. In Punjab, 1,459 smart lockdowns were in place; whereas 206 were in place in Sindh; 182 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P); 3,205 in Islamabad and 30 in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).