Over 50 persons under quarantine in Rawalpindi

Rawalpindi: Well over 50 persons have been under quarantine at their homes here in the district including relatives and contacts of a confirmed female patient of coronavirus (COVID-19) undergoing treatment at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) as she was taken to the hospital from Rawalpindi.

“The district health department has put 30 to 35 persons under quarantine who remained in contact with the female patient who was staying in town and had been undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Rawalpindi,” said Executive District Officer (Health) Dr. Sohail Ahmed Chaudhary while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.

He added that all the persons so far screened for COVID-19 by the health department have turned out to be asymptomatic and could not be termed as suspects even. Two patients confirmed positive at PIMS stayed in Rawalpindi and all their contacts are being monitored on regular basis, he said.

It is important that two of the three confirmed patients of illness caused by novel coronavirus 2019 were staying in town and at present they are undergoing treatment at PIMS. The female patient confirmed positive for COVID-19 on Saturday is in critical condition at PIMS.

The screening of relatives and close contacts of the female patient is in progress since her confirmation and the teams are still working on finding out the persons with whom the patient remained in contact, he said.

He said a total of 755 persons have so far been screened for COVID-19 majority of which reached Rawalpindi from Iran after pilgrimage (Ziaraat) but all of them have been cleared as they were not having any signs or symptoms of COVID-19.

It is important that the government has not closed public transport system, mosques and a number of other public places though marriage halls have been shut down. When asked, the EDO said at present, the situation is being monitored and there may not be any need of shutting down public transport channels.

According to a senior health official at the district health department, some 50 to 55 persons have been under quarantine at their homes including contacts of confirmed patient and those having link with either China or Iran or any other affected country. The teams of district health department are monitoring their health on regular basis.

Pleading anonymity, he said tests were conducted in three cases among close contacts of the confirmed patient that were turned out to be negative. Data collected by ‘The News’ on Sunday has revealed that to date well over 1,160 persons from districts including Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal have been screened for COVID-19 but all of them have been asymptomatic. Over 690 have been screened in Rawalpindi district, 335 in Attock, 74 in Jhelum and some 65 in Chakwal.

It is important that till Sunday morning, a total of 126 suspected patients of COVID-19 have been reported in the Punjab province though none of them has been confirmed positive. On Sunday evening, a patient was tested positive for the disease in Lahore but from a private laboratory.