Pakistan's coronavirus cases reach 259,999 with 2085 new infections

Coronavirus in Pakistan: Pakistan's coronavirus cases on Friday reached 259,999 after 2,085 more people tested positive for the COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the health ministry reported.

According to the Ministry of National Health Services, another 49 patients died in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 5,475.

The ministry also said that 183,737 patients so far recovered from the disease. However, 1,895 persons were still in critical condition.

Out of the total 259,999 cases, 110,068 are in Sindh, 89,023 in Punjab, 31,486 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 14,454 in Islamabad, 11,385 in Balochistan, 1,808 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and 1,775 Gilgit-Baltistan.

A total of 1,676,090 coronavirus tests were done, including 23,907 in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the National Institute of Health (NIH) conducted a study titled "Sero-Epidemiological Survey for COVID-19" in Islamabad between June 1 and June 25.

The study said that around 300,000 persons were infected, showing that the capital city was going towards "herd immunity". Most of the infected individuals were asymptomatic, Dawn newspaper reported.

The NIH executive director, Major General Prof Dr Aamer Ikram, said that during the study equal representation from the rural and urban areas was ensured.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Islamabad Capital Territory is divided into 44 administrative units: 12 of the urban and 32 rural. As per the national census of 2017-18, the population of the city is 2,006,572.

Dr Ikram said that after applying the standard techniques sample size required was found to be 4,328 for the survey.

"A structured, pre-tested questionnaire was used to gather data relating to demography, clinical issues and exposure and risk factors from the community. Blood samples were collected from participants who were tested for immunoglobulins against COVID-19...Throat or nasopharyngeal swabs were also collected from those having symptoms or a contact history with a positive case for PCR testing. All samples were tested at the virology lab of NIH," he said.

A preliminary analysis showed a prevalence of 14.5 per 100 population for COVID-19, he said.

"As for the area-wise distribution of the disease, rural union councils were more affected. Out of all the union councils, Chattar was found to be the most affected, followed by the union councils of Muhrian and Tarlai Khurd.

"Considering the ages, the most affected group comprised people between 41 and 50 years, followed by the 31-40 years group and 51-60 years group. PCR positivity rate was found to be 17 per cent," he said.