Pakistan saw another week with encouraging numbers, indicating that the coronavirus outbreak is being contained. Weekly numbers show that almost all regions — except GB and AJK — are on-track while showing significant drop in the week over week numbers.
A total of 13,458 new cases were reported during the week, down 32% from 19,807 cases that were reported a week ago. This is a very significant decline from 40,807 cases that Pakistan added in the week 9-15 June 2020.
While 333 precious lives were lost during the week, the number is 52% down from 504 deaths that were reported a week earlier.
For those who are wondering, the number of tests remained almost the same during the week, with an average of 22,228 tests per day, down from an average of 23,506 tests per day during last week.
The number of patients in ICUs (on vent or oxygen) dropped to 1552, down from 1,837 ICU admissions that we had last Monday. Not to mention, ICU admissions were around 4,000 during mid-June 2020.
Region-Wise Decline / Growth in Cases
Below is how various regions have progressed in terms of the week over week new cases over the past 7 days.
- Punjab: 38% Decline
- KP: 32% Decline
- Balochistan: 32% Decline
- Sindh: 32% Decline
- Islamabad: 20% Decline
- AJK: 22% Growth
- GB: 61% Growth
Are we Testing Enough?
A number of tests per week have remained the same over the past four weeks, despite the fact that the number of cases has reduced notably, thus bringing down the test-to-positive case ratio.
This week, a total of 155,598 tests were conducted across Pakistan with a test-to-positive case ratio of 8.65%.
The test to positive case ratio was as high as 25% at the end of May and has now come down to a more stable level. In some regions, such as Islamabad and Balochistan, the test-to-positive case ratio is just 1% while in Punjab it’s around 5%.
A test-to-positive case ratio of 4% is considered optimal where you aren’t wasting tests but are testing enough individuals to make sure that numbers are accurate.
More Graphs:
Below are more table and graphs to show you how Pakistan has been combating Coronavirus over the past 4 months:
Why isn’t anybody speaking about low testing? We have reduced testing significantly. Is there a sinister plot here?
We have tested less than 2 million. 2 million for 220 million population? So the government assumes that 200 million population is not infected?
If you see the graph cases are reduced with almost similar amount of testing. Means positive/test ratio is declined significantly. That is a clear indication of decreasing trent.
Do you mean to say 2 million tets are enough for a population of 220 million?
I’m not talking about number of tests. I’m talking about positive to testing ratio.
Means in previous few weeks we were recording cases around 4500/day with about 22000 testing/day
But now we are recording only cases around 2000/day with about 21000-23000/day.
So, the number of cases are reduced keeping the testing same.
I know these are not exact numbers(maybe cases are more than that) but it gives us clue that cases are reducing.