Fed govt to extend help to provinces to increase COVID testing: sources

ISLAMABAD: Federal government has decided to mobilize its resources and help provinces in increasing COVID-19 testing in the wake of worsening virus-related situation in the country, ARY NEWS reported quoting sources.

According to sources privy to the details, the federal government has asked the provinces to increase their testing capacity.

“In order to improve their capacity, initially, the federal government will provide testing kits to the provinces,” they said adding that the NDMA has been directed to provide kits to the provinces.

The sources further said that the federal government has further directed the NDMA to keep 500,000 test kits in reserve.

Further, they said that it has been agreed that the Centre and provinces would purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) with their own available resources.

There is no let-up in Covid-19 fatalities as Pakistan recorded the highest number of deaths from the coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic in February last year.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, 157 people died of Covid-19 in a single day, pushing the national tally to 16,999. The last time the country recorded the highest death toll in a single day was on June 20 when 153 people died.

As many as 5,908 new infections surfaced when 52,402 samples were tested. The country’s overall positivity ratio of new cases jumped to 11.27%, according to the NCOC.

The national tally of confirmed cases climbed to 790,016 with the addition of 5,908 cases.

Thus far, Punjab has reported 285,542, Sindh 276,670, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 112,140, Islamabad 72,613, Balochistan 21,477, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 16,327 and Gilgit Baltistan 5,247.

A total of 686,488 people have recovered from the disease while the number of active cases stands at 86,529.