Coronavirus hitting twin cities hard

Rawalpindi: Coronavirus illness, COVID-19 outbreak has resumed hitting population badly in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi after a break of five weeks or so, from August 1 to September 9 as in last 24 hours, the virus claimed another three lives in Rawalpindi district and 93 more patients have been tested positive for the disease from the region.

From August 1 to September 9, a total of 965 patients were tested positive while the virus claimed 18 lives in all from the twin cities and on September 7, the federal government announced the reopening of educational institutions from September 15.

However, from September 10 to date, well over 1900 patients have been tested positive while 28 died of the disease and the number of patients is continuously on a tremendous rise for the last one week. In last four days, 11 confirmed patients of COVID-19 have lost their lives in the twin cities while over 425 new patients have been tested positive.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Sunday reveals that three female patients undergoing treatment at Holy Family Hospital, Fauji Foundation Hospital and Quaid-e-Azam International Hospital died of the disease in the last 24 hours taking the death toll from Rawalpindi district to 298. The patients were 52, 68, and 81 years of age.

It is important that the virus has already claimed as many as 188 lives in the federal capital from where 86 new patients have been tested positive in the last 24 hours. To date, a total of 17,296 patients have been confirmed positive from ICT of which 16,319 have recovered while the number of active cases is continuously on the rise for the last four weeks. On Sunday, there were a total of 789 active cases of the disease in the federal capital.

On the other hand, as many as seven new patients were tested positive from the Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours. To date, a total of 6,479 patients have been tested positive for the disease from the district while as many as 6,008 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’. He added that nine confirmed patients have been undergoing treatment at a healthcare facility in town while some 164 confirmed patients of COVID-19 have been in home isolation in the district. Another 441 suspects of the disease have been under quarantine in their homes while to date, a total of 4,198 persons have been relieved from quarantine, he said.