Health expert calls for imposing emergency in wake of worsening COVID situation

ISLAMABAD: Secretary General of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Dr. Qaiser Sajjad has demanded of the government to impose an emergency in the country in the wake of the worsening COVID situation.

Speaking exclusively to ARY NEWS, Dr Qaiser Sajjad warned that Pakistan is heading towards a similar COVID-19 situation as faced by India as the country on Saturday reported the highest ever death toll from the virus that is 157 since the start of the pandemic.

While calling to impose an emergency in the country, the PMA official said that if COVID SOPs were effectively enforced in the country then the situation would not have taken this turn.

There is no let-up in Covid-19 fatalities as Pakistan recorded the highest number of deaths from the coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic in February last year.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, 157 people died of Covid-19 in a single day, pushing the national tally to 16,999. The last time the country recorded the highest death toll in a single day was on June 20 when 153 people died.

As many as 5,908 new infections surfaced when 52,402 samples were tested. The country’s overall positivity ratio of new cases jumped to 11.27%, according to the NCOC.

The national tally of confirmed cases climbed to 790,016 with the addition of 5,908 cases.

Thus far, Punjab has reported 285,542, Sindh 276,670, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 112,140, Islamabad 72,613, Balochistan 21,477, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 16,327 and Gilgit Baltistan 5,247.

A total of 686,488 people have recovered from the disease while the number of active cases stands at 86,529.