Peshawar Covid rate climbs to 16%

Recorded at 5.5 per cent in Abbottabad, Chitral Lower

PESHAWAR:

A sudden surge has been recorded in the Covid-19 positivity in Peshawar district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) as it has reached 16 per cent per day followed by five per cent in Nowshera and Kohat districts.

Talking to The Express Tribune an official of the Health Department said that along with the overall positivity ratio there is an increase in the number of Omicron cases too as on Friday 75 new cases were reported.

“Out of the total 75 cases reported from the province, 45 were reported from Peshawar district alone,” he said, adding that from Mardan district seven cases, from Nowshera five cases, Charsadda one, Haripur one, Malakand one, Swabi eight new cases, and from Chitral two new cases have been reported.

“Out of the 75 infected patients 41 are men and 34 are women aged between 11 to 63 years,” he said, adding that in Abbotabad and Chitral Lower the positivity ratio has been recorded at 5.5 per cent.

The K-P Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jharga has said that the Health Department has been completely alert to deal with the fifth wave of the Covid-19 and all the staff has also been put on alert under the health emergency.

He appealed to general public to strictly follow Covid-19 related standard operating procedures (SOPs) for their own safety.

Covid-19 sample collection target

The provincial government has set a target of collecting 15,000 samples per day for Covid-19 tests and linked the districts with different medical laboratories by issuing the details of targets and laboratories for future strategy.

According to the Health Department sources, a new target for Coronavirus testing has been set for all the districts of K-P. Peshawar district would collect a total of 2,400 samples on a daily basis while Mardan would collect 1,200 samples, Swabi 990 samples, Kohat 850 samples and Nowshera district would collect 990 samples on a daily basis.

For Dera Ismail Khan a target of collecting 1,060 samples per day has been set while for Haripur 850, for Bannu 450 samples, for Charsadda 990 samples and for Abbottabad a target of collecting 420 samples per day has been set.

According to the sources samples collected from Peshawar, Shangla, Orakzai, Nowshera, North Waziristan, Mohmand, Mardan, Mansehra, Malakand, Lakki Marwat, Hangu, Kohat, Chitral, Karak, Khyber, Battagram, Buner, Charsadda, DI Khan, Bajaur, Tank and Kurram would be sent to Khyber Medical University (KMU) for screening. While samples collected from Abbottabad, Kohistan, Kolai Palas and Toghar would be sent to Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) Abbottabad.

The samples from Waziristan would be sent to DI Khan Lab for testing while samples from Swat would be sent to Swat Public Health Laboratory. It was further revealed that samples collected from Mardan would be tested at Bacha Khan Medical College, Mardan while samples from Dir Upper and Lower would be sent to Timergara Laboratory and samples from Bannu would be sent to Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital.

With additional inputs from APP

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2022.