Pakistan warns of ‘rapid’ build up of COVID-19 hospital patients as Delta strain hits

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani planning minister Asad Umar, who heads the country’s pandemic response body, the NCOC, cautioned people on Thursday to follow coronavirus standard operating procedures and get vaccinated, saying there was a “rapid” increase in the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and critical care.
Just weeks ago, Pakistan was celebrating a win against a third wave of the coronavirus as numbers significantly declined and the government lifted nearly all lockdowns and restrictions. But the more infectious Delta variant has now hit Pakistan, officials say, forcing the central and provincial governments to reimpose some COVID-19 restrictions and rethink strategy.
Around 2,545 new cases were reported on Thursday, bringing the total number of infections to 981,392 in the country of more than 220 million people.
Over 125 million people are eligible for the coronavirus vaccination in Pakistan but the government has only administered 21 million doses to date.
“Rapid build up starting to take place in covid patients hospital inflow, as well as patients in critical care,” Umar said on Twitter, warning people to follow health guidelines and get vaccinated as soon as possible. “Do not risk your own & others lives.”

Umar also warned about the Delta variant, reminding that it had caused devastation in other countries in the region.
The Delta variant, first identified in India last October, is more easily transmitted than earlier versions of the coronavirus and is suspected to cause more severe disease, especially among younger people.
The Delta variant was first identified in India in December 2020 and led to major outbreaks in the country. It then spread rapidly and is now reported in 104 countries, according to a US Center for Disease Control tracker.
As of early July, Delta has become the dominant form of the coronavirus in the US, UK, Germany, and other countries. In the UK for instance, the Delta variant now makes up more than 97 percent of new COVID-19 cases, according to Public Health England. The strain has mutations on the spike protein that make it easier for it to infect human cells. That means people may be more contagious if they contract the virus and can more easily spread it to others.
Scientists are still tracking the data to determine how deadly it is. Based on hospitalizations in the UK, the Delta variant seems to be more likely to lead to hospitalization and death, particularly among unvaccinated people, according to a recent study published in The Lancet.
People who haven’t been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are most at risk fo the Delta variant, Yale Medicine reported.
Worldwide, cases declined steadily for two months but rose 10 percent compared to the previous week, the World Health Organization said on July 13. The number of weekly deaths, which declined steadily for nine consecutive weeks, also increased.