90pc patients in country contract virus locally.

Byline: Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR -- Ninety per cent of the Covid-19 patients in the country have contracted the virus from local sources, according to a report.

The report said that seven per cent of the patients contracted the infection from the people, who arrived from abroad, and three per cent from the pilgrims coming from Iran.

The report, prepared by National Emergency Operations Centre under the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, said that the prevalence of infection in 98 per cent of patients in Islamabad was due to local transmission while 95 per cent patients in Balochistan, 93 per cent in Sindh, 88 per cent in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 87 per cent in Punjab, 86 per cent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 68 per cent in Gilgit-Baltistan contracted the virus from local sources.

It said that in early March the local transmission rate was 48 per cent but lately the virus spread from the locally infected people to the population.

Report says Tableeghi Jamaat members account for seven per cent of Covid-19 transmission

It said that members of Tableeghi Jamaat accounted for seven per cent of virus transmission in the country, 13 per cent in Punjab, five per cent each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan and one per cent in Islamabad.

The report said that the country had enough ventilators for Covid-19 patients.

The report said that 2,356 ventilators were available in the public sector hospitals of the country and 702 were dedicated for Covid-19 patients. However, only 112 were under the use of Covid-19 patients while 368 were being used by non-Covid-19 patients and 1876 were unoccupied and therefore utilisation rate was mere 16 per cent, it added.

It said that the number of ventilators in Punjab was 1321, in Sindh 501, in Islamabad 233, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 192, in Balochistan 61, in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 39 and in Gilgit-Baltistan it was nine. Overall use of ventilator is 16 per cent, according to the report.

It said that in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 48 per cent ventilators...