JAVED KHAN
PESHAWAR
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) added 52 new cases of Coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the overall caseload to 591, according to the data by provincial health department.
With two new deaths, the toll from the disease in the province has climbed to 5,945.
Health officials on Tuesday in a statement said that the total number of people infected with Omicron, a new variant of Covid-19, has surged to 22 in KP. Peshawar recorded the maximum number of Omicron cases so far, the officials added.
As many as 8,062 tests were conducted in the province during the last 24 hours.
According to daily Covid-19 updates, during the same period 45 patients have also been recovered from the disease, reaching the total number of the recovered persons in the province to 175,306.
A total of 37 Covid-19 patients are currently under treatment in Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) Peshawar, 11 patients infected by the virus admitted to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), while 16 patients under treatment in Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH).
It is to note here that Khyber Medical University (KMU) Public Health Lab yesterday detected nine cases of Omicron. Of which eight cases were recorded in Peshawar and one from Karak.
With 22 cases of Omicron, mostly reported in Peshawar, suggests an alarming situation for the district which was one of the hardest-hit districts in almost all previous waves of the province.
The report said that of the new cases, Peshawar recorded 36, Mardan four, Malakand two, Hazara three, and Kohat reported four cases.
According to health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra that despite rising cases of Omicron variant there was no planning to impose lockdown in the provincial capital.
He said that the health department was conducting contract tracing in Peshawar, adding that a health emergency has been imposed in KP and all necessary measurements have been taken to curtail the spread of the Omicron variant.
The Health Minister has said that currently the rate of Omicron was very low in the province.
“KP is fully prepared to deal with the fifth wave, 60 percent of the population has been vaccinated against coronavirus,” he added.
He urged the media to help the provincial government in its vaccination awareness campaign.
Our hospitals have the capacity to make hundreds of beds within 24 hours if required, he added.
The administration has been pursuing the people not adhering to the precautions against the virus but there is a need to scale up public awareness that wearing masks, keeping social distance and hand sanitizing is a better strategy against the infection.
