50% of COVID-19 patients have recovered in Pakistan
100,802 patients have recovered out of 213,469 confirmed cases; KP people fear their area will be locked down if more virus cases are reported; govt extends permission to operate domestic flights
The number of people who have recovered from the coronavirus in Pakistan has surpassed 100,000, about 50% of total infections.
The virus has spread in Pakistan at one of the fastest rates in the world since February, and the deaths have jumped since May, when Prime Minister Imran Khan eased lockdown despite warnings from experts.
In Wednesday’s statement, the National Command and Control Centre (NCCC) said 100,802 patients have recovered out of 213,469 confirmed cases. Pakistan recorded 41,33 more cases and 91 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The government data show 2,741 people are still listed in critical condition.
Pakistan has sealed off hot spots across the country since last month to contain the spread of virus, saying the country’s economy cannot afford a stricter lockdown.
Alsoonwednesday,thegovernmenthasdecided to further extend the permission for operating domestic flights to and from six airports of the country till Aug.31.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued a
NOTAM, notice to airmen, regarding the extension, reports Dawn news. The permission in this regard was earlier given till June 30.
The CAA’S NOTAM says that the government of Pakistan is pleased to allow restricted domestic schedule and chartered passenger flight operations between Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta airports only in accordance with established guidelines — Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS) — and prior approval from the competent authority.
However, domestic flights operation to and from the Islamabad international airport for Gilgit and Skardu airports would continue as normal operation.
It further said the domestic schedule and the chartered passenger flight operation from all other airports would remain suspended.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) health department is facing the daunting challenge of testing the contacts of COVID-19 patients as people are not giving swabs for laboratory analysis fearing that in case of positivity their areas would face smart lockdown, officials said.
They said that since the strategy of smart lockdown was adopted by the government on the national and international guidelines, the health department was finding it hard to trace the contacts of the positive cases for testing.
According to the guidelines issued by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the health department is required to recommend to the district administration and home department to enforce smart lockdown in the areas where more cases are being reported.
“If number of COVID-19 positive cases in a union council or village council reaches 500, the health department asks the district administration to enforce smart lockdown and close the exit and entry points there,” said the officials.
They said that after finding a confirmed case, as standard operating procedure they went for tests of contact tracing and at least 10 swabs were taken from the people in the surrounding areas.
However, since the start of the smart lockdown strategy, the people were not willing for voluntary testing that was posing a big challenge to the Covid-19 situation in the province, they said.
Officials said that imposition of smart lockdown depended on the number of coronavirus cases in a specific area. If the number reaches a certain level then district health officer concerned requests the deputy commissioner to enforce smart lockdown in the area. After receiving the recommendations, relief and district administration are responsible for smart lockdown.
“The strategies are different for urban and rural areas. According to the formula, when we report a few cases in certain areas, then we recommend to the district administration to impose smart lockdown in the street where people are tested but there is a big issue that people aren’t giving swabs. It is voluntary and we cannot force people to undergo testing forcefully, therefore, many meetings have taken place during the last few days to resolve this issue,” they said.
The officials said that number of tests reduced by 50 per cent during the past couple of days, which was not a good sign. They said that the government adopted the smart lockdown strategy instead of complete lockdown because people could not afford it owing to economic problems.