PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health and Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra on Sunday pointed out that one reason why the province’s fatality rate from the novel coronavirus appears to be high might be the limited number of tests that are being conducted.
In a series of early-morning tweets, Jhagra said: “KP has a population of 35m, but 20,625 tests so far, which we are growing aggressively.”
While calculating the fatality rate, only the confirmed number of cases are taken into account, he said. The actual number of cases may be much higher, which means the province’s fatality rate is “actually much, much lower”.
3. KP has a population of 35 mln, but 20,625 tests so far, which we are growing aggressively.
The fatality rate only looks at patients declared positive after a test. With actual numbers much greater, the fatality rate is actually much much lower in KP, and in all countries. pic.twitter.com/NEEkwOrJIa
— Taimur Khan Jhagra (@Jhagra) May 3, 2020
Jhagra noted that the casualties may be “reflective of greater spread” instead of a higher fatality rate.
According to him, the provincial health department is working round-the-clock on increasing the testing capacity. He had earlier disclosed that the province had taken its capacity to 1,200 tests per day “from zero”.
Yesterday, Pakistan witnessed a record number of deaths from Covid-19 with nearly half of them being reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone. The province’s death toll currently stands at 172 with an alarming 6 per cent mortality rate, highest in the country.
