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PESHAWAR: Seventeen people died of coronavirus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as health officials expressed concerns over the widespread active cases, which could spread the infection further.
Infectivity level of the virus also surged to 13.6 per cent in Abbottabad and 13.5 per cent in Peshawar on Tuesday. Positivity in Peshawar and Abbottabad was recorded 12 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively a day before, officials said.
Of the new fatalities, seven belonged to Peshawar, three to Mardan, two each to Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan and one each to Swabi, Swat and Mardan, making the overall tally of casualties 4,696 since the advent of the pandemic in the province.
A health department report said that the province registered 702 new infections which made its total score of incidence 153,836 of whom 142,134 including 755 recorded during the last 24 hours recovered from the infectious ailment. A total of 10,084 tests were conducted on suspected patients with overall positivity of six per cent in the province.
17 more die as infection level rises to 13.6pc in Abbottabad, 13.5pc in Peshawar
Peshawar, the provincial capital, diagnosed 257 new coronavirus cases, making its total number of patients 56,511 so far. It has also recorded 2,271 of the total deaths occurred due to Covid-19 so far.
Mansehra reported 60 new cases, Swabi 51, Chitral Upper 50, Kohat 48, Chitral Lower 42, Mardan 39, Abbottabad 37, Dera Ismail Khan 35and Nowshera registered 22 new cases of the virus.
A total of 1,280 patients have been admitted to the hospitals and 52 of them are on ventilator and in critical condition. The province has still 350 unused ventilators in different hospitals.
The report said that overall case fatality rate (CFR) in the province was thee per cent. However, the CFR was above four per cent in Peshawar, Swat, Mardan, Abbottabad and Dera Ismail Khan.
Bed occupancy in Peshawar is 56 per cent, in Abbottabad 73 per cent, in Swat 45 per cent, in Swabi 34 per cent, in Mardan 22 per cent and in Nowshera 29 per cent.
Officials said that the hospitalisation of confirmed Covid-19 patients on ventilators was increasing. They said that the hotspot districts including Peshawar, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Mardan and Swat had been recording more deaths and infections.
National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has been asking the health department to take care of the high-risk districts and ensure adherence to standard operating procedures as well as increase vaccination.
Officials said that active cases in the province were widespread and could be the source of spread of the virus to other people. The report of health department said that 58 per cent of the active patients were men and 42 per cent were women.
They said that men could be the potential cause of transmitting the virus to others in the community because they spent more time outside their homes as compared to women, who stayed inside and were unlikely to become cause of the transmission. Of the total infected persons so far detected, 66 per cent were male and 34 per cent female while the pandemic had killed 61 per cent men and39 per cent women, they added.
The report said that of the total 7006 active Covid-19 patients in the province, Peshawar registered 2,115, Abbottabad 940, Mansehra 643, Kohat 541, Mardan 357, Dear Ismail Khan 338, Nowshera 312, Chitral Lower 267, Swabi 256, Malakand 211, Swat 180, Chitral Lower 178 and Bannu recorded 142 cases.