2 more deaths indicate situation not yet normal

Rawalpindi : Another two deaths due to coronavirus illness, COVID-19 in last 24 hours here in Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district hints that the situation has not yet become normal as the virus has claimed at least eight lives in the region in last five days.

To date, a total of 448 patients have died of the illness in the twin cities out of a total of 21,138 patients so far confirmed positive from the region. In last 24 hours, another 35 patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 from ICT and Rawalpindi district.

In last three days, as many as 113 patients have been tested positive for the illness from the twin cities while five patients died of the illness and the figures make situation similar to what was at the end of April when population all across the country was under a strict lockdown.

In the second week of May, the governments decided to ease lockdown and at that time, a number of health experts and associations of health professionals were urging federal and provincial governments to further strengthen lockdowns. The governments did not pay any heed to the requests of health professionals and in June, the population all across the country had to face the worst situation as the outbreak entered into the most intense phase.

At present, the governments are planning to lift restrictions from almost all businesses and are about to lift lockdowns completely though experts are still of the view that the authorities should wait for another few days to make such decisions.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Saturday reveals that in last 24 hours, a 83-year old male patient belonging to Satellite Town in Rawal Town area of Rawalpindi district died of COVID-19 here at Holy Family Hospital taking total number of deaths so far caused by the disease in Rawalpindi district to 277. The other death due to the illness has been reported from Islamabad Capital Territory in last 24 hours taking death toll from the federal capita to 171 on Saturday.

To date, a total of 5924 patients have been tested positive for the disease from the district including three added on Saturday while as many as 5569 patients have so far been discharged from healthcare facilities after treatment, said Executive District Officer (Health) Rawalpindi Dr. Sohail Ahmed Chaudhary while talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday.

He added that as many as 25 confirmed patients have been undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities in town while some 53 confirmed patients of COVID-19 have been in home isolation in the district. Another 6,740 suspects of the disease have been under quarantine in their homes while to date, a total of 3,858 persons have been relieved from quarantine, he said.

Meanwhile, another 32 patients have been tested positive from the federal capital in last 24 hours taking total number of confirmed patients so far reported from ICT to 15,214 of which 12,878 have so far recovered. On Saturday, there were a total of 2,165 active cases of the disease in ICT according to the figure released by National Command and Control Centre.