Individuals to ‘live at their own risk’

Rawalpindi : The severity with which the coronavirus illness, COVID-19 has been hitting population in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi is registering a sharp rise with every passing day though it seems as individuals have been left to live at their own risk as nothing significant is being done to safeguard them from the disease nor standard operating procedures (SOPs) are being followed ideally anywhere in the region.

Almost all public sector hospitals working on management of COVID-19 patients have reached to their saturation points and it is hardly possible for a critical patient to have ventilator support bed immediately after he or she needs it. Almost same is the situation of a number of medicines used to treat complications of the disease as almost all markets even all across Pakistan have been facing shortage of medicines like Tocilizumab (Actemra).

Both the federal and the provincial governments are urging people to follow SOPs at their own to avoid spread of the disease yet the number of confirmed cases being reported daily have been setting records for highest number of patients in a day almost every second day hinting towards a much alarming situation in coming days.

On Friday, the number of patients confirmed positive from the twin cities in a day crossed the figure of 400 for the first time since the outbreak hit population in the region.

As many as 437 new patients were tested positive for the disease in last 24 hours taking tally to 6,420 in the twin cities while another six patients died of COVID-19 in last 24 hours, three each from the federal capital and Rawalpindi district.

All the three patients died in the district were males having over 60 years of age. They were residents of Taxila, Gujar Khan and Rawal Town and had been undergoing treatment at Benazir Bhutto Hospital and Corona Management Centre at Rawalpindi Institute of Urology.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Friday reveals that in last 24 hours, another 398 patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory taking total number of confirmed patients from the federal capital to 3946 of which 629 have so far recovered while 41 have lost their lives.

On Friday, there were 3276 active cases of coronavirus illness in the ICT according to the official figure released by the National Command and Control Centre.

In Rawalpindi district, as many as 39 new patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 taking tally to 2474. Of a total of 2474 patients so far tested positive from the district, as many as 1110 have so far been discharged after treatment from healthcare facilities while 107 have lost their lives, said Executive District Officer (Health) Dr. Sohail Ahmed Chaudhary while talking to ‘The News’ on Friday.

He added that 850 confirmed patients of the disease have been in isolation at their homes in the district while another 406 confirmed patients have been undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities in town designated for corona management.

Talking of persons in quarantine, the EDO said a total of 2,497 persons are under quarantine at their homes in the district.

It is important that a total of five healthcare facilities including CMC at RIU, BBH, Holy Family Hospital, Pakistan Red Crescent Society Rawalpindi and a field hospital at Shahbaz Sharif Sports Complex have been working on managing COVID-19 patients in the district.