Large spikes in cases as 8 deaths, 367 test positive in a day

Rawalpindi : A tremendous increase in the number of patients being tested positive for coronavirus illness, COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district is being witnessed as on Saturday, as many as 367 patients have been added to the dashboards of the twin cities while the virus claimed another eight lives in the last 24 hours proving the virus highly dreadful.

Eighteen deaths in the last three days from the twin cities and 908 new cases in the last 72 hours has turned the situation much alarming not only for the general public but also for healthcare professionals, office workers and staff of educational institutions in this region of the country.

It is worth mentioning here that out of 1502 patients tested positive from all across the country on Saturday, 367 are from the twin cities while of a total of 20 deaths caused by the virus in the last 24 hours, eight have been reported from the twin cities showing that the region has been worst hit by the second wave of the outbreak.

Vice-Chancellor Rawalpindi Medical University Professor Dr. Muhammad Umar has already tested positive for COVID-19 and there in unrest among the staff of the three allied hospitals in town including Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, and District Headquarters Hospital as they have no other option but to deal with COVID-19 suspects and patients.

Specifically established Corona Management Centre at Rawalpindi Institute of Urology has been shut down and it is ironic that in the existing alarming scenario, the seat of Medical Superintendent at RIU is lying vacant after the retirement of Dr. Khalid Randhawa, after October 28.

Many health experts believe that educational institutions in the twin cities should not operate and the government authorities should take notice of the worsening situation in the hard-hit region.

Data collected by ‘The News’ reveals that from August 1 to September 9 (in 40 days), when the situation was well under control, a total of 965 new patients was confirmed positive for COVID-19 from the twin cities at an average of 24 patients per day while from September 10 to October 1 (in 22 days), 1064 new patients were reported making an average of over 48 patients per day.

From October 2 to October 16, in two weeks, 1,413 new patients were tested positive for the illness at an average of 101 patients per day while from October 17 to October 31, 2,380, new cases were reported at an average of 170 patients per day. In the last week, the situation became much alarming with 1,708 new cases at an average of over 244 confirmed patients reported per day.

According to District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia, the virus claimed five lives in ICT in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 236, and as many as 335 new patients were tested positive for the disease from ICT taking the tally to 21302 of which 18786 recovered. The number of active cases of COVID-19 in the federal capital has jumped to 2280 on Saturday.

From Rawalpindi district, three patients including one female died of the disease at Quaid-i-Azam International Hospital and HFH taking the death toll to 334 in the district.

Another 32 patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 7131 of which 6502 have recovered. As many as 16 patients are hospitalized in the district through another 277 confirmed patients have been in home isolation along with 499 suspects under home quarantine said Executive District Officer (Health) Rawalpindi Dr. Sohail Ahmed Chaudhary while talking to ‘The News’.