Seven deaths, 487 test positive in a day

Rawalpindi : A little downward trend in the number of patients being tested positive for coronavirus illness, COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district is being witnessed for the last five days though the number of confirmed patients reported per day is still significantly higher as compared to other parts of the country.

In the last 24 hours, as many as 487 new patients have been confirmed positive from ICT and Rawalpindi district while a total of 3,499 patients have been reported from all across the country. Out of a total of 39 deaths caused by the virus in the last 24 hours from Pakistan, seven were reported from the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

According to District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia, the decline in the number of confirmed cases being reported from ICT is being witnessed which is mainly because of strong surveillance and strict checking on violations of SOPs.

Talking to ‘The News’, he said the teams of health department are working hard to make it mandatory for all businesses in ICT to follow SOPs though he admitted that violations are still being made by individuals and businesses to some extent. Individuals must understand that without following SOPs religiously, it is not possible to control the spre-ad of COVID-19, he said.

According to details, the virus has claimed five lives in ICT in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 329 and as many as 417 new patients have been tested positive for the disease from the federal capital taking the tally to 31,165 of which 24,960 confirmed patients have recovered. The number of active cases of COVID-19 in the federal capital was 5876 on Thursday.

From Rawalpindi district, two patients died of the disease in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 422 in the district. Another 70 patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 9,754 of which 8,215 have recovered. The number of active cases of the disease from Rawalpindi district was 1117 on Thursday.

As many as 75 confirmed patients belonging to Rawalpindi are undergoing treatment at different healthcare facilities in town while some 1042 confirmed patients have been in home isolation, said Executive District Officer (Health) Rawalpindi Dr. Sohail Ahmed Chaudhary while talking to ‘The News’.