10 COVID-19 deaths, 946 cases from twin cities

Rawalpindi: Saturday was the 10th day in the last 15 days with reports of over 920 cases of coronavirus illness, COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district while earlier in the last one year, the number of patients tested positive for the illness in a day from the twin cities crossed the number of 900 only once, on March 20 this year.

COVID-19 claimed another 10 lives from ICT and Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours taking the death toll from the region to 1,396 while 946 new patients have been tested positive from the region taking the tally to 83,726.

From March 27 to date, as many as 13,696 new patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 from the twin cities making an average of 913 patients per day showing that over 20.7 per cent of all cases reported from all cross Pakistan in the last 15 days are from the twin cities.

Every fifth patient being reported from the twin cities makes the situation much alarming for the region particularly when it is home to less than 3.5 per cent of the total population of Pakistan.

It is important that the population in the twin cities has been facing the worst-ever outbreak of the disease for the last couple of weeks. Earlier, in the most severe phase of the outbreak in June 2020, as many as 13,060 cases were reported from the region in 30 days while in the last 15 days, 13,696 patients have been reported showing the intensity of the outbreak has more than doubled.

The number of active COVID-19 cases from the region is also registering a continuous sharp increase for the last 15 days. On Saturday, as many as 15,483 active cases were there from the twin cities that is the highest number of active cases from the region on a day. Before March 27 this year, the highest number of active cases recorded on a day from the twin cities was 9,594, on June 20 last year.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Saturday reveals that four more patients died of COVID-19 from the federal capital in the last 24 hours taking the death toll from ICT to 601 while six more deaths caused by COVID-19 from Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours has taken the death toll from the district to 795.

In the last 24 hours, as many as 729 patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 from ICT taking the total number of confirmed patients so far reported from the federal capital to 64,902 of which 51238 patients have recovered. The number of active cases from the federal capital has reached 13063 on Saturday.

Meanwhile, another 217 patients have been tested positive for the illness from Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours that has taken tally to 18,824 of which 15,609 patients have so far recovered.

On Saturday, the number of active cases from the district jumped to 2420 of which 136 patients were undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities in the district while 2,284 were in home isolation.