Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The death toll from novel coronavirus climbed to 2,216 in Pakistan on Tuesday after Punjab recorded highest single-day death toll of any province at 58, Sindh 29 fatalities and one more death was reported in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
While, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported with 23 more deaths; 12 in Peshawar, three each in Abbottabad and Lower Dir, two in Swat and one each in Mardan, Malakand and Dera Ismail Khan.
Confirmed cases in the country jumped to 110,829 after new cases were reported in Sindh, Islamabad, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. According to the national dashboard, 1,447 new cases were reported in Sindh, 456 in Islamabad and 16 new cases in AJK.
As of now, 40,819 cases have been reported in Punjab, 41,303 in Sindh, 14,527 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 6,788 Balochistan, 5,785 Islamabad, 952 Gilgit Baltistan and 412 in Azad Kashmir.
According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center, 4,646 persons have been tested positive for Covid-19 in 24 hours.
Furthermore, 773 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab, 679 in Sindh, 587 in KP, 58 in Balochistan, 52 in Islamabad, 14 in G-B and 9 in Azad Kashmir.
Sindh Health Department said that hundreds of jail officials and 888 inmates have tested positive for coronavirus in the province’s jails with the most infections in Karachi’s Central Jail and 828 inmates and 14 jail officials have tested positive, while one has died of the virus in Karachi’s Central Jail.
The Sindh chief minister said that 466 patients are in critical condition while 71 are on ventilators. The number of recoveries has risen to 19,896, he added. Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah has said that the time to impose a lockdown is now gone and now all citizens can do to curb the spread is take preventive measures.
Addressing a press conference, Shah said that a complete lockdown should have been implemented earlier, when the disease had started to spread. If the virus had been taken seriously when cases started to emerge in the country, the spread could have been curbed, Shah said.
“Why didn’t people take it seriously? Because they were being told by one
side that this virus is not to be feared. “When the [Sindh] chief minister came on TV to share the situation of the province, he was accused of promoting panic.”
Punjab Health Minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid has said that 1916 more people have tested positive for coronavirus in the province Tuesday. The minister said that number of ventilators has been increased amid rising number of coronavirus cases in the country.
Dr. Yasmin Rashid, while addressing a press conference, said that when government eased the lockdown, people assumed that the coronavirus pandemic has ended. She added that coronavirus cases increased due to violations of SOPs by people, however, government fined shopkeepers and closed markets for violating government orders.
The provincial health minister claimed that Punjab is conducting most coronavirus tests per day. She emphasized that taking precautions is the only solution to coronavirus problem and urged people to take measures to curb the spread of the virus.
For the budget session of the Khyber-Pakthunkhwa Assembly starting from June 19, Covid-19 testing will begin on June 12. Members of the assembly will be tested till June 15.
Tests of all ministers, advisers and special assistants will also be carried out, as per instructions issued to the provincial Health Department.
Peshawar’s LRH will let families communicate with Covid-19 patients via video call
The relatives of patients admitted to Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital’s coronavirus complex will now be able to communicate with each other through video call.
In a statement issued by the hospital’s spokesperson, the hospital has introduced this facility to help families communicate with patients.
In addition, a separate counselling room has also been established, through which families can interact with hospital staff deputed at the Covid-19 ward. “The video call facility will help get rid of misconceptions about hospital staff and will help uplift patients’ mental health,” the statement read.
