Coronavirus in Pakistan: Highest mortality rates observed in KP, Punjab

• Punjab has the highest mortality rate
• Most number of recoveries recorded in Balochistan and GB 
• Over 3,000 new infections reported in past 24 hours

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan's coronavirus death toll rose to 8,653 with the virus claiming 50 lives in the past 24 hours, the highest fatality rates of 2.8% and 2.6% were observed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab respectively.

The two provinces recorded 11 and 19 new deaths on December 10, data issued by the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) showed on Friday.

KP and Punjab are closely followed by Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) with a fatality rate of 2.4% while Gilgit Baltistan reported 2.0%. Although Sindh has recorded 191,246 cases, the most number of coronavirus infections in the country, its fatality rate is one of the lowest at 1.6%. Meanwhile, Balochistan has the lowest fatality rate of 0.98%.

Since the beginning of December, Pakistan is losing about 56 lives on average per day as 563 people have died of COVID-19 in the past 10 days.

During the early months of the pandemic, the country was reporting as many as 139 deaths every day with a mortality rate of over 2.14%. The current rate stands at 2.0%.

Read our daily COVID-19 report here.

New cases

At least 3,047 people were diagnosed with COVID-19 across Pakistan in the past 24 hours, bringing the accumulated tally to 432,327 on Friday. 

The highest coronavirus case positivity rate is observed in Balochistan with 12.85%, closely followed by Sindh at 12.27%. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's positivity rate stands at 8.10%, AJK reported 7.74%, Islamabad 4.81% and Punjab 3.89%. The lowest positivity rate of 1.22% has been recorded in GB.

Karachi remains the city with the highest prevalence of coronavirus infections with a case positivity rate of 18.43%, followed by Mirpur at 14.29% and Peshawar at 11.68%.

Recoveries

At 87.68%, Pakistan has one of the highest recovery rates in the world as a total of 379,092 survived the deadly disease. 

The highest recovery rate has been observed in Balochistan as 96% of the coronavirus patients have beaten the virus, followed by GB at 95.15% and Punjab 91.06%. KP has reported a recovery rate of 88% and Sindh at 86% while Islamabad and AJK recorded 79.8% and 79.2% respectively. 

To find out the latest COVID-19 updates from Pakistan and around the world, read our live blog.

Bids to contain virus

With the rising spread of the virus, the federal government on December 9 warned it would shut down more sectors if the public continued to violate coronavirus SOPs.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development and NCOC chief Asad Umar said there was a rapid increase in infections during the second wave as the public was less serious than it was during the first wave.

He warned that if the virus is not contained, the government may decide to close down more sector and impose stricter restrictions in two weeks time.

The federal government has already made face masks mandatory in public spaces, limited large public gatherings to 300, banned indoor weddings, closed shrines, cinemas, and theatres, and instructed public and private offices to adopt work-from-home policy and 50% occupancy.

The federal government has also announced that educational institutes will remain closed from November 26 to January 10. The students will study at home or get weekly homework till December 24 and winter vacations will start December 25. The schools will reopen on January 11 - which is subject to coronavirus situation then. All examinations have been postponed except admission and recruitment tests.

Furthermore, all provinces have banned indoor dining and limited timings for markets, shops, and shopping malls. Many areas in the country have been placed under smart lockdowns.