Nine more die of coronavirus, 555 test positive in twin cities

Rawalpindi: Another nine confirmed patients of coronavirus illness, COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Rawalpindi district died of the illness in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 1,540 while 555 new patients have been tested positive for the disease that has taken tally to 95,448 on Tuesday.

It is worth mentioning here that the population in this region of the country has been facing the most severe phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in its history at least for the last six weeks. The average number of patients reported per day from the region stands at 785 in the last 42 days along with reports of 340 deaths of patients belonging to the twin cities.

On March 16 this year, the number of patients tested positive from the region crossed the figure of 500 for the first time in 2021 while in the last six weeks, as many as 32,979 new patients were added to the existing pool of patients. The total number of patients who tested positive from the twin cities in the previous one year of COVID-19 outbreak was 62,469, till March 16 this year.

For the first time in the history of COVID-19, the number of active cases of the illness from the twin cities crossed the figure of 10,000, on March 28 this year that has been recorded as 14,255 on Tuesday. The number of active cases from the twin cities on the last 21 days remained over 14,000 showing the third wave of the outbreak hit the population the worst.

It is, however, important to note that the number of active cases from the region had dropped down to below 1,500 in the first week of February this year. Data collected by ‘The News’ on Tuesday has revealed that the virus claimed five more lives from ICT taking the death toll to 670 while the total number of patients so far tested positive from the federal capital reached 73,804 after confirmation of another 354 cases in the last 24 hours.

To date, a total of 60,521 patients from ICT have recovered while the number of active cases of the disease from the federal capital has got to 12,613 on Tuesday. Meanwhile, another four patients died of the illness from Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours taking the death toll from the district to 870. As many as 201 new patients have been tested positive from Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 21,644 of which 19,132 patients have so far recovered from the illness.

According to the district health department, a total of 138 confirmed patients belonging to the district were undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities in town while some 1,504 patients suffering from COVID-19 were in home isolation in the district on Tuesday.