Nation witnesses decline in deaths

Minister warns personal decisions can play key role in virus prevention

Pakistan witnessed a slight decline in its single- day Covid- 19 deaths tally with 32 people losing their lives during the last twenty- four hours. In the same period, 1,877 new cases were reported. With these new figures, Pakistan’s overall infections have surged 504,293 and deaths 10,676.

A day earlier, the country had reported 46 deaths and 2,899 new infections.

According to the National Command & Operation Centre ( NCOC) as the country is all prepared for vaccine procurement in next couple of weeks, 1,402 persons recovered from the virus taking the total number of recoveries to 458,371.

According to the health ministry’s website, there has beena steady rise in thenumber of active Covid- 19 cases in the last three days — 33,474 on Saturday, 34,808 on Sunday and 35,246 on Monday.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives Asad Umar has highlighted the importance of personal decisions by individuals saying they are directly linked with the health consequences.

Devastating impact

In a number of tweets, the Minister said itwas important that we all take responsibility and take precautions. “If we do the right things we shall inshallah continue to safeguard lives & livelihoods,” said he in the tweet.

In another tweet, he referred to the devastating impact of Covid- 19 on the United Kingdom and the United States saying there are more deaths than anytime during the first wave.

“This shows the danger that could face us, if we do not continue to do the right things, with both the state and citizens playing their role,” he warned.

Precautionary steps

Asad Umar also urged the people to follow precautionary measures to check the spread of the virus. When the second wave accelerated, we closed high risk areas identified by our analysis in the last week of November.

“In the first week of December, hospital admissions peaked. In the second week, patients on oxygen/ vents peaked. In the third week, mortality peaked and then declined. Decisions & results are highly correlated.”

The NCOC has started making preparations to administer Covid- 19 vaccine to front line workers and 9,000 health care workers in the federal capital have got themselves registered for this purpose.

There are a large number of health facilities including public sector and private hospitals, labs, health- related organisations and departments in the federal capital and the health authorities are expecting the number to increase in the coming days, said an officialwho attended themeeting of the NCOC a day earlier.