‘Second wave’ of Covid-19 with 1,000 cases in three weeks

RAWALPINDI: As many as 147 new patients were tested positive for coronavirus illness, COVID-19 in the last 24 hours from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district ringing alarm bells in the region after three months.

This comes at a point when nearly 1000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the last two weeks indicating a second spike of the outbreak has almost set irifin and it is time for decision-makers to take action accordingly otherwise the population would have to face a situation like that of June, said the experts.

The virus also claimed one life in ICT in last 24 hours taking death toll to 480 of which 188 died in ICT and 292 from Rawalpindi district. Over 140 patients were tested positive from the twin cities on July 8, 93 days back.

It is important that according to many health experts, a spike in the number of cases of COVID-19 is being witnessed in the region as in the last one week, as many as 592 new cases were reported from ICT and Rawalpindi. Experts say that the scenario calls for an urgent thinking on shutting down educational institutions at least if not other departments. It is important that in the first week of September, a total of 167 new patients were tested positive for COVID-19 from the region while in the last three days, 330 patients have been reported from ICT and Rawalpindi district.

The existing situation can be termed as a second spike of the outbreak and we have to shut down educational institutions sooner or later to avoid further spread of the disease, said a senior health official pleading anonymity.

He said it would be better for the concerned government authorities to take serious notice of the emerging spike at the time instead of giving more room to the virus to play havoc in the lives of people.

According to data collected by ‘The News’ on Friday in last 24 hours, another 113 patients tested positive from ICT while 34 from Rawalpindi. To date, a total of 23,577 patients were tested positive for COVID-19 from the twin cities including 17,122 from ICT and 6,455 from Rawalpindi.