Indian, S African variants of coronavirus detected in KP
Staff Reporter Peshawar
The Indian and South African variants of the novel coronavirus have been detected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial health department confirmed Friday.
According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Secretary Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah, the Indian variant of the coronavirus was confirmed in a patient.
Meanwhile, two patients who tested positive for the virus were found to be infected with the South African variant.
Shah said that all three patients had arrived in Pakistan from the United Arab Emirates a few days ago.
“All three infected patients are residents of Peshawar,” Shah said, adding that the samples of 12 more patients had been sent to Islamabad for testing.
Providing further details about the infected patients, the provincial health secretary said that person who has been infected with the Indian variant of the coronavirus is 41 years of age, while the other two patients — who have been infected with the South African variant of the virus — are 38 and 18 years of age, respectively.
The health secretary also said that both the Indian and the South African variant of the novel coronavirus spread rapidly and are dangerous.
He, therefore, urged the masses to strictly follow the government’s mandated coronavirus standard operating procedure (SOPs).
At 3.58%, Pakistan reports lowest coronavirus positivity rate in three months On Friday, Pakistan reported its lowest coronavirus positivity rate in three months at 3.58%, according to the the latest statistics provided by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
The numbers of coronavirus patients at three big hospitals of the provincial metropolis were reducing with each passing day as at Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) only 52 patients were under treatment for the infection.
KTH Spokesman on Friday informed 52 out of 106 reserved beds for coronavirus patients were in use while 13 patients were under treatment at the ICU.
For the critical patients, 25 ventilators have been reserved wherein 13 patients were under treatment.
the HDU of the hospital 18 patients were under treatment while 21 were on low oxygen supply units, the spokesman said adding during the last 24 hours 2 patients were admitted at the hospital.
