Rawalpindi : For the first time in the history of COVID-19 in Pakistan, it happened that over 1,000 patients have been tested positive in a day from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district setting a new record for the highest number of cases reported in a day with 1,143 patients.
Along with confirmation of 1,143 patients positive, another nine patients from the region have lost their lives due to coronavirus illness in the last 24 hours.
It is important that earlier the highest number of cases reported from the twin cities in a day was 986, recorded on Thursday. The situation is becoming more and more alarming with every passing day in the region and it is obvious from the fact that the twin cities have registered new record for the highest number of cases in a day for the fifth time in just two weeks.
The third wave of the COVID-19 outbreak is proving itself the most severe in nature and it can be gauged from the fact that the number of patients tested positive in a day crossed the figure of 900 for the first time on March 20 this year while in the last one week, the twin cities registered over 933 patients per day on average.
During the first two waves of the outbreak, the average number of patients reported per day had never crossed the figure of 600 in a week. As many as 6,537 new patients have been reported from the region in the last one week along with 57 deaths caused by the disease.
Data collected by ‘The News’ has revealed that well over 23 per cent of all COVID-19 cases reported from Pakistan in the last one week were registered from ICT and Rawalpindi district that contains less than 3.5 per cent of the total population of the country. Of 28,341 new patients tested positive from Pakistan in the last seven days, 6,537 patients belong to the twin cities.
Almost similar is the situation in terms of active cases as on Friday, as many as 12977 active cases were there from the twin cities that make over 23 per cent of all active cases present in the country. On Friday, there were 56,347 active cases of the disease in Pakistan.
Many health experts are of the view that in the light of existing COVID-19 trend in the twin cities, it may not be possible to implement SOPs, being framed for other districts of Pakistan rather than the case of the region should be dealt with some exclusive strategy to control further spread of the virus as the situation is getting out of control in this part of the country.