10.4% of total patients from ICT are children

Rawalpindi: In the last 24 hours, as many as 724 new COVID-19 patients have been reported from the twin cities taking tally to 88,023 while the virus claimed another seven lives from the region taking death toll to 1,438.

According to details, as many as six patients died of COVID-19 from the federal capital and one from Rawalpindi in the last 24 hours while 575 new patients have been reported from ICT and 149 from Rawalpindi district. Death of six more COVID-19 patients from the federal capital in the last 24 hours has taken death toll from ICT to 625 while one more death caused by COVID-19 from Rawalpindi district has taken death toll from the district to 813.

Meanwhile, nearly 10 per cent of all patients so far reported positive for coronavirus illness, COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district since the advent of the disease in Pakistan are children below 10 years of age and according to top officials at the health departments, the confirmation of children is not a newer phenomenon.

District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia informed ‘The News’ on Thursday that as many as 7,052 child patients from new born to 10 years of age have so far been reported positive for COVID-19 from the federal capital though few are active cases as majority of the child patients have already recovered.

He said the phenomenon is not a newer one nor any significant increase in number of child cases has been witnessed in recent past. It has been observed that around 10 per cent of the total patients tested positive in the federal capital are children since the outbreak hit the region, he said.

Data collected by ‘The News’ reveals that around 10.4 per cent of the total COVID-19 patients so far reported from ICT are children while 68.2 per cent of the total patients from the federal capital are between the age of 21 and 60 years. Of the total patients so far registered from Islamabad, 59.10 per cent are males while 40.90 are females.

Data also reveals that the percentage of child cases from the federal capital was recorded as 10.1 per cent some two weeks and it shows that there is a slight increase in number of child cases in the last two weeks, an increase of four child patients per 1,000 patients.

A top official at District Health Department Rawalpindi expressed to ‘The News’ that nearly 2,000 child patients have so far been reported from the district that amounts to around 10 per cent of the total COVID-19 patients. It is important that nearly 65 per cent of all patients reported positive for COVID-19 from the district are males and around 35 per cent females.

It is worth mentioning here that only a few deaths have been reported among child patients suffering from COVID-19 and according to health officials, the deaths of child patients could not be attributed to coronavirus as the child patients were having co-morbidities. Dr. Zaeem said that on Wednesday, April 14, a total of 508 patients were tested positive for COVID-19 from ICT of which 44 were below the age of 10 years.