Five Covid-19 deaths, 264 cases in twin cities

RAWALPINDI: Coronavirus illness, COVID-19 outbreak is getting more and more intense with every passing day at least here in Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district from where the number of confirmed cases of the disease is on a continuous increase and almost all educational institutions and marriage halls are operating as per routine giving more room to the virus to grow.

As many as 264 new patients have been tested positive for the illness in the last 24 hours from the twin cities showing the spread of the disease is getting faster again while the virus claimed another five lives from the region taking death toll to 1,162.

There is a continuous increase in number of COVID-19 cases, said District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia adding the weekly positivity has risen to 4.1 per cent, for the last one week that was 2.65 per cent in the previous week.

The continuous increase in number of cases hints towards a similar situation encountered by the population in September 2020 after reopening of educational institutions when the second wave of the outbreak hit the region severely. The average number of patients being tested positive per day from the region had jumped to around 500 within two months after reopening of schools, colleges, universities and business setups at that time.

In the last one week, over 1650 patients have been reported from the twin cities making an average of over 235 patients per day and the number is on a continuous rise.

Data collected by ‘The News’ reveals that the virus has claimed one more life from ICT in the last 24 hours and four from Rawalpindi district while 221 new patients have been reported from the federal capital and 43 from Rawalpindi. To date, a total of 59,103 patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 from the twin cities including 45,740 from ICT and 13,363 from Rawalpindi.