5 more die of COVID-19, another 231 test positive

Rawalpindi : As many as five confirmed patients of coronavirus illness, COVID-19 belonging to Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district have died of the disease in the last 24 hours while 231 new patients have been tested positive from the region that is the lowest number of patients reported in a day from the twin cities after March 7 this year.

The positivity rate of COVID-19, however, was less than five per cent from the region in the first week of March this year that has been recorded as 5.75 per cent in the last 24 hours for ICT. It is important to mention here that the positivity rate for ICT has been recorded as less than six per cent for the fourth time in the last two months.

District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia informed ‘The News’ on Wednesday that out of a total of 3,096 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, as many as 178 persons have been tested positive for COVID-19.

He added that the ICT health department has already been carrying out activities under the vaccination outreach program as lady health workers are going door to door to campaign for the enhancement of vaccination in ICT. These LHW’s are also directing people to get vaccinated in the newly established vaccination centres in the rural areas of the federal capital, he said.

He added that as many as 158 tablets (tablet computers) have been provided to LHWs and vaccinators to record and monitor community health indicators that would certainly help to strengthen the healthcare system. We would have reliable data for evidence-based decision-making as we have working out to automate the system for better performance, he said.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Wednesday reveals that death of another five patients has taken death toll from the region to 1,640 while the total number of patients so far tested positive from the region has reached 101,688.

Another two patients from the federal capital died of the disease in the last 24 hours taking the death toll from ICT to 718 while 178 new patients have been tested positive from ICT. To date, a total of 78,560 patients have been tested positive from the federal capital of which 67,811 have recovered while the number of active cases from ICT was 10,031 on Wednesday.

On the other hand, the virus claimed three more lives from the Rawalpindi district taking the death toll from the district to 922 while the confirmation of 53 new cases from Rawalpindi took the tally to 23,128.

To date, a total of 21,054 patients have recovered from the illness in the district. The number of active cases of the disease from the district was 1,152 on Wednesday of which 68 patients were undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities in town while the number of confirmed patients in home isolation was 1,084.