ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported its highest number of coronavirus-related deaths so far this year on Wednesday, amid a third wave of the pandemic that is putting the country’s health service under extreme strain.
The government portal keeping track of the outbreak in the country registered 135 deaths in the last 24 hours — up from 118 a day earlier and the highest number of fatalities since June 20 — taking the total number of deaths on the measure to 15,754.
According to the Ministry of National Health Services (MoNHS) data, 48,092 tests were conducted on Tuesday after which 4,681 people tested positive for the contagion disease. The total number of cases in the country is 734,423.
Punjab recorded the most deaths during the last 24 hours at 79 followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) with 49.
Sindh has been the worst hit with 269,840 cases followed by Punjab where 255,571 people have been tested positive, the statement said.
REVISED GUIDELINES FOR RAMADAN:
Through a statement, National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) issued revised guidelines for the month of Ramadan in a bid to curtail the spread of the disease.
According to the notification, broader lockdowns with stricter implementation were suggested with residents of hotspots not allowed any movement except for emergencies.
The statement further announced to observe weekends as “closed days” nationwide, while operational hours of commercial areas would be from Sehr until 6:00 pm daily. However, essential services such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and petrol pumps are exempt from these limits.
The guidelines reiterated a blanket suspension of all kinds of indoor and outdoor gatherings, including all sporting and cultural events. Similarly, cinemas and shrines would also remain shut, as would amusement parks, barring jogging tracks that are allowed to remain functional with strict adherence to guidelines.
While indoor dining remained suspended, the forum allowed “outdoor dining […] from Iftar till midnight” with strict standard operating procedures (SOPs). Takeaway and delivery will be allowed between Iftar and Sehr, it added.
There would continue to be a complete ban on interprovincial transport on weekends, which would continue until April 25. However, it added, the decision would be reviewed on April 20.
Intercity public transport would also continue to operate at 50 percent capacity, while railway travel would operate at 70 percent capacity. Pakistan Railways, the statement announced, would operate additional trains to avoid overcrowding during Ramadan.
Under the new guidelines, a 50 percent work-from-home policy would continue at all public and private offices.
Taraweeh prayers should be organised in open spaces wherever possible, it said. The forum also urged civil administrations to engage with clerics for assistance in enforcing SOPs during Ramadan.
The NCOC also directed stringent protocols for tourism in KP, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and elsewhere. “Sentinel testing sites at every point/selected locations [will] be established,” it said.
These guidelines were decided on during a “special session” of the NCOC convened in view of the prevailing coronavirus situation, the statement revealed.
It said that the measures would come into effect from Wednesday (today), and would be reviewed after 10 days. It also stressed that the suggested guidelines were a “baseline,” and federating authorities were free to implement ever harsher measures based on their particular needs.
CANSINO SAYS NO BLOOD CLOTS REPORTED FROM ITS SHOT:
Meanwhile, China’s CanSino Biologics Inc. said that no serious blood clot cases had been reported so far in people who were injected with its Covid-19 vaccine Ad5-nCoV.
The announcement follows US federal health agencies’ recommendation on Tuesday that the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, which uses a similar technology to CanSinoBIO’s product, should be paused for at least a few days after six women younger than 50 developed rare blood clots after receiving the shot.
“No blood clot-related serious adverse events have been reported in around one million vaccinations of Ad5-nCoV,” CanSinoBIO said in a filing.
Pakistan had participated in phase 3 trials of the single-dose vaccine, which has an efficacy rate of 65.7 percent at preventing symptomatic cases. In March, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar had announced to import CanSino jabs in bulk to package three million doses locally.
“We will be getting the bulk vaccine by mid-April from CanSino from which 3 million vaccine doses can be made,” he said. “The bulk vaccine received will be formulated, sterilised, and packed in Pakistan.”
The consignment will be in addition to over a million doses of Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines, which the government received in two batches earlier this month.
CanSinoBIO’s shares fell as much as 13.7 percent and 18.4 percent in Shanghai and Hong Kong, respectively, in morning trading.
Vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and CanSinoBIO contain another virus called adenoviruses, which have been modified to essentially render them harmless.
The adenoviruses are employed as a vector to ferry instructions for human cells to make parts of the new coronavirus, triggering the immune system to produce antibodies against it.
CanSinoBIO’s Covid-19 vaccine, which has been approved in China and secured deal in Mexico, uses a different adenovirus than that for Johnson & Johnson’s.
