Islamabad : As many as 1,170 patients have been tested positive for coronavirus illness, COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours setting a new record for the third highest number of cases reported in a day from the twin cities since the advent of coronavirus in Pakistan.
It is important that over 1,150 patients have been confirmed positive from the twin cities in a single day only for the third time during the pandemic and it happened only during the current wave, fifth wave of the outbreak. The number of patients tested positive for COVID-19 in a day remained over 1150 in the last three days.
According to District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia, 892 individuals tested positive for COVID-19 from the federal capital in the last 24 hours at a positivity rate of 12.60 per cent. We are monitoring the situation in the capital and advise everyone to get vaccinated, he said.
The DHO informed ‘The News’ that another 12 educational institutions have been sealed in the federal capital after reporting of confirmed COVID-19 cases from their premises. In the last one week, a total of 23 educational institutions including schools, colleges and universities have been sealed in the federal capital.
In a tweet, the DHO said due to current high number of persons with symptoms which may suggest coronavirus, we are receiving a large number of calls for home testing. While we are making an effort to respond on time, please do bear with us for the delays in this situation, he said.
He added that if you have symptoms, do isolate yourself at home until you are able to be tested. You may also follow guidelines from the NCOC and use a rapid antigen test which is widely available for self-testing, said Dr. Zaeem.
Data collected by ‘the News’ reveals that in the last 24 hours, the virus claimed four more lives from the region, all from ICT taking death toll from the twin cities to 2205 while confirmation of 1,170 new cases from the region has taken tally to 154,461 on Saturday.
According to details, another four deaths due to COVID-19 from the federal capital has taken death toll from ICT to 975 while confirmation of 892 new cases from the federal capital has taken tally to 115,939. To date, a total of 108,525 patients have recovered from the illness in the federal capital. The number of active cases of the disease from ICT has got to 6,439 after addition of 735 active cases to the existing pool in the last 24 hours.
On the other hand, in the last 24 hours the virus claimed no life from Rawalpindi district from where 1,230 patients had already died of COVID-19. Another 278 patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 from Rawalpindi taking tally to 38,522 of which 35,526 patients have recovered while the number of active cases in the district has reached 1,766.
On Saturday, as many as 29 patients were hospitalized in the district while the number of confirmed patients in home isolation was 1,737.