Two COVID-19 deaths

By Muhammad Qasim
January 16, 2022

Islamabad : Coronavirus illness, COVID-19 outbreak that had lost intensity in the last three months of the year 2021 here in Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district once again started hitting population in the region with much severity particularly in the last one week as the positivity rate of the infection became three times as compared to the rate recorded seven days back.

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In the last 24 hours, the virus claimed two lives from the region while another 464 patients were reported from the twin cities registering a positivity rate of around 7.3 per cent. It is important that the positivity rate of the infection in the region was less than 2.3 per cent seven days back. The population witnessed as many as 11 days without reporting of any death due to COVID-19 from the region though in the last 24 hours, two patients died of the infection taking death toll from ICT and Rawalpindi district to 2,193.

It is worth mentioning here that unlike the past, at such higher positivity rate of the infection, everything is going normal without imposition of any lockdown, closure of markets or educational institutions. According to District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia, the weekly positivity rate of COVID-19 in ICT jumped to 5.05 per cent from the previous week’s positivity rate of 1.85 per cent while in the last 24 hours, it was recorded as seven per cent. Everyone is advised to follow SOPs, get vaccinated and get booster dose, he said.

He said as many as 354 new patients have been diagnosed with COVID-19 from ICT against 5093 tests conducted at a positivity rate of seven per cent. On the other hand, the positivity rate of infection in Rawalpindi has been recorded as 7.58 per cent in the last 24 hours making the situation much alarming. The authorities, however, have taken no extraordinary measures apparently to control the situation. Data collected by ‘The News’ reveals that confirmation of 464 patients from the region has taken tally to 147,692. It is also alarming that the number of active cases from the twin cities has crossed the figure of 2,240 that was below 400 some two weeks back.

The virus has claimed one life from ICT in the last 24 hours taking death toll to 968 while one patient died of coronavirus illness from Rawalpindi district taking death toll from the district to 1,225. To date, a total of 110,597 patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 from ICT of which 107,903 have recovered. The number of active cases from the federal capital rose to 1726 after addition of 294 active cases to the existing pool in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, 110 new patients have been reported from Rawalpindi district taking tally to 37,095 of which 35,352 patients have achieved cure. The number of active cases of the disease from the district has got to 518 on Saturday that was 75 on the first day of the year 2022. According to the district health office Rawal­pindi, a total of 28 confirmed patients were admitted to the healthcare facilities in the district while 490 were in home isolation on Saturday.

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