Local transmission emerging as dominant factor in COVID-19 spread: Mirza

ISLAMABAD, Apr 15 (APP):Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza Wednesday said the local transmission was emerging as dominant factor of COVID-19 spread during the last few days, with a ratio of 54 percent of total reported cases.

At a briefing on COVID-19, Dr Mirza, said due to government’s effective
and prompt steps besides preventive measures by citizens, the fatality rate
was still low in the country, against the global mortality rate.

He said the experts had projected the possibility of 18,000 COVID-19 positive cases in Pakistan by April 15, but fortunately the reported cases were close to 6,000, even less than one third of the estimate. Similarly, 107 deaths had been reported in the country so far against the projected figure of 216, he added.

He pointed out that there was still threat of spread of disease and urged
the citizens to strictly follow the social distancing and other precautionary
measures to stem coronavirus in the country.

He asked the citizens to persistently follow protective measures in line with
health officials’ directions to avoid carrying coronavirus and check any spread due the local transmission.

Sharing breakup of corona cases, Dr Zafar Mirza said 73,439 tests had been
conducted in the country so far with 5,988 confirmed corona patients. He said 272 new cases, reported during the last 24 hours, included 119 from Punjab, 66 from Sindh, 65 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine from Islamabad, nine from Gilgit Baltistan and three from Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

He said 1,500 patients had been recovered from this disease. He said total
16,387 people were in quarantine centers throughout the country, out of which 3,047 were corona positive while 80% were negative.

Dr Zafar Mirza said out of total 107 deaths, 11 were reported during the 24
hours while 44 patients were still in critical condition.

He said that the government did its best to control the disease and added
the Federal Government had formulated standard operating procedures (SOPs), which had also been shared with the provinces for their implementation by the manufacturing units, retailers, shops and industries, which were being opened from now onward.

He said that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendations were
also included in the SOPs. He added it will be the responsibility of owners and employers to ensure implementation of all required preventive measures including social distancing and avoiding rush of customers.

He said that the SOPs, protocols or guidelines could be downloaded and
shared with the employees of low-risk businesses from www. covid.gov.pk