'Pak has much higher Covid-19 mortality rate in comparison to global data'

Despite health experts claims that COVID-19 has been less lethal among Asians, global data has shown that Pakistan's mortality rate is far higher than in many regions, a media report said.

Pakistan's coronavirus mortality rate was 2.24 per cent against 1.97 per cent globally. It further showed that 28,870 deaths were reported across the country, out of which 61 per cent were males and 39per cent females, reported Dawn citing a document of the country's National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

More Pakistanis died because they visited hospitals due to complications arising from Covid-19 rather than the infection itself, said Dr Javed Akram, member of the Scientific Task Force on COVID-19,

Referring to the high number of casualties, Akram cited poor health and diagnostic facilities as a major cause for the high mortality rate in the country.

"Unfortunately in Pakistan people do not visit hospitals with COVID-19; rather they visit hospitals once they develop complications, said Akram, emphasising, "We lack state-of-the-art health and diagnostic facilities."

Akram also stressed that Pakistan's intensive care units remained under pressure or were overburdened due to which the COVID-19 mortality ratio increased.

The minimum age of a Pakistani national who succumbed to the infection was two months and the maximum age was over 100 years, with the median age calculated at 62 years, said Dawn citing the NCOC document.