865 Covid-19 cases, two deaths in twin cities

RAWALPINDI: The third wave of coronavirus illness, COVID-19 outbreak is hitting Rawalpindi district the worst for the last one week with over 1260 confirmed cases in the last seven days along with 28 deaths.

In the last 24 hours, as many as 317 new patients have been reported from Rawalpindi which is the highest number of cases recorded from the district in a single day since the advent of coronavirus in Pakistan.

It is worth mentioning here that the average number of patients reported per day from Rawalpindi district during the first year of COVID-19 outbreak is less than 43 while in the last one week, the average number of patients tested positive per day from the district turned out to be 180.

Even during the most severe phases of the outbreak in the first and second wave, the average number of patients reported from the district per day did not exceed 100. It is important that the first COVID-19 patient was reported in the district on March 20 last year and till March 19, 2021, the number of cases reached 14,401 that amount to around 1,200 cases in a month.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Thursday has revealed that in the last 24 hours, as many as 865 new patients have been reported from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district which is the fourth highest number of cases recorded in a day from the region since the outbreak hit Pakistan while two more patients died of the illness, both from the federal capital.

Another 548 patients have been tested positive for the illness from ICT after which the total number of patients confirmed positive from the federal capital has reached 53,684. So far, the federal capital has emerged as the worst-hit area in the country as per its population compared with other districts of the country. A total of 554 patients from ICT have so far died of the illness.

Strict preventive measures are needed to be followed continuously despite vaccination drive as the new variant of the virus may pose more risk, said Director General at Directorate of Health Services MCI/CDA Dr. Hasan Orooj. He said the new variant has already posed new challenges to the world.

According to details, out of 53,684 patients so far tested positive from ICT, as many as 46,307 have recovered while on Thursday, there were 6,823 active cases of the disease. On the other hand, confirmation of 317 new cases from Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours has taken tally to 15,547 of which 705 have died of the illness while 13,131 have recovered.

On Thursday, there were 1,711 active cases of COVID-19 from Rawalpindi of which 112 confirmed patients were undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities in town while 1,599 were in isolation at their homes.