KP records 25pc recovery rate of Covid-19 patients.

Byline: Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR -- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 25 per cent recovery rate of Covid-19 patients amid calls by public health experts for early action, isolation of confirmed cases, lockdown, travel restrictions, massive testing and provision of face mask to everyone to stem tide of the virus in the coming days.

'Implementations of these best practices differentiate one country from other in terms of the new number of cases and deaths,' Prof Ziaul Haq, the dean of public health department at Khyber Medical University, told Dawn.

A new report by World Health Organisation and government has revealed that Sindh has 20 per cent recovery rate of Covid-19 patients. Since the onset of the pandemic, nearly 23,000 people have tested positive throughout the country.

A total of 6,217 have recovered after receiving treatment at the hospitals or self-quarantine at homes, showing a nationwide recovery rate of 27 per cent.

At the national level 526 patients have died of the ailment, showing 2.3 per cent overall Case Fatality Rate (CFR) in the country.

Experts call for lockdown, travel restrictions and provision of face mask to people

Prof Zia said that so far, the situation was in control and central and provincial governments responded well with early action, lockdown and travel restriction, however, more efforts were needed for establishing field hospitals, more testing and provision of face mask to everyone.

'As public health specialists, we recommend continuing strong lockdown but we do understand that government may also look into the economic aspects. A smart lockdown may be fine but needs more testing and stricter implementation of SOPs,' he said.

As of Wednesday, Pakistan recorded an overall recovery rate of 27 per cent of the total patients, who were confirmed earlier but later healed from the pandemic.

KP has so far recorded 3,499 confirmed cases and 875 of them have recovered from the illness after hospitalisation. The province has recorded 194 deaths due to the virus with 5.5 per cent CFR.

Punjab has the most number of confirmed cases in the country with a total of 8,420 patients. The biggest province had 3,086 patients, who were treated successfully and became negative for the disease, thus showing 35.4 per cent recovery rate, the highest in the country...