3 deaths, 260 new cases in twin cities

Rawalpindi : Coronavirus illness, COVID-19 has claimed another three lives in the last 24 hours here in Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district taking the death toll from the region to 552 while another 260 patients have been tested positive for the illness from twin cities showing that the spread of the disease is getting uncontrolled day by day.

It is important that over 250 confirmed cases of the illness have been reported in a day from the region after 127 days and according to many health experts, the situation is heading towards the most intense phase of the outbreak, the population witnessed in June. Over 250 cases from the twin cities were reported last time on June 29.

The population in the region faced the most intense phase of COVID-19 outbreak during June when the outbreak hit the whole country the hardest. The horrible can be termed as the situation in June as the virus claimed well over 250 lives in one month in the twin cities.

The unchecked spread of coronavirus illness has also started causing unrest among health professionals once again. It is worth mentioning here that Corona Management Centre at Rawalpindi Institute of Urology in town that was established as a specialized healthcare facility to deal with COVID-19 cases got vacated last month and the patients are being facilitated at Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, and Red Crescent Hospital.

Many health experts believe that hospitals dealing with coronavirus cases may cause further spread of the disease particularly among thousands of routine patients and their attendants visiting these hospitals.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Wednesday reveals that two patients died of COVID-19 in ICT in the last 24 hours while another 228 were confirmed positive taking the tally to 20,471. The number of deaths caused by the virus in ICT has reached 224 and the number of active cases got to 1,869 on Wednesday.

The virus claimed one life in the Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours. A 56-year old male patient who was a resident of Gulshan Colony along Adyala Road died of the disease here at HFH.

As many as 32 new patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 from Rawalpindi district in last 24 hours taking the tally to 7,054 of which 6403 have recovered while 328 have lost their lives.

On Wednesday, a total of 24 patients were undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities in the district while some 299 confirmed patients were in home isolation. We have 533 suspects of the disease under home quarantine in the district, said Executive District Officer (Health) Rawalpindi Dr. Sohail Ahmed Chaudhary while talking to ‘The News’.

He added that to date, a total of 4,528 persons have been relieved after completion of a 14-day quarantine period.