ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Chairman Asad Umar on Thursday said that getting vaccinated is the only way to control the outbreak of coronavirus.
In a statement, the minister expressed concerns over the worsening situation of the virus in Pakistan and told that the number of patients suffering from oxygen shortage has escalated to 5600.
The Indian coronavirus is rapidly spreading due to violation of standard operating procedures (SOPs), he added.
On the other hand, Pakistan has reported more 85 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 1,140,411. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 25,320 today.
According to the latest figures by the NCOC, 4,553 persons tested positive for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.
Punjab remains the worst-hit province in terms of deaths followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Till now 11,666 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab 6,742 in Sindh, 4,859 in KP, 856 in Islamabad, 688 in Azad Kashmir, 338 in Balochistan, and 171 in GB.
Furthermore, 425,570 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 385,258 in Punjab, 158,964 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 97,542 in Islamabad, 32,014 in Balochistan, 31,294 in Azad Kashmir and 9,769 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Pakistan has so far conducted 17,459,249 coronavirus tests and 61,466 in the last 24 hours. 1,022,847 patients have recovered in the country whereas 5,476 patients are in critical condition.
ANOTHER KP DOCTOR LOSES BATTLE WITH CORONAVIRUS:
Meanwhile, another doctor lost his life to the coronavirus pandemic in KP on Thursday, taking the number of doctors dying from the virus in the province to 70.
Professor Dr Zahir Shah, the latest victim of the pandemic, was the former chief executive of Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar and had retired as a professor of Community Medicine at Khyber Medical College, Peshawar.
According to the statement issued by Provincial Doctors’ Association, Dr Shah was admitted to the coronavirus ward of Hayatabad Medical Complex.
The statement further said that with one more death, the total number of medical and paramedical staff dying from the coronavirus in the province has now reached 108.
As per the statement, family members of the doctors and paramedics losing the battle against the virus are still deprived of the monetary compensation under the ‘Shuhada Package’ announced by the KP government in April last year.
Funeral prayer for the deceased doctor was offered at Eidgah Road, Faqirabad, Peshawar.
