One COVID-19 death, 267 cases from twin cities

Rawalpindi : Reporting of as many as 267 new cases of coronavirus illness, COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours show that the fourth wave of the outbreak is hitting population harder in this region of the country.

The virus claimed one more life from Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours taking death toll from the twin cities to 1,791 while confirmation of 267 new patients positive has taken total number of patients so far registered from the region to 109,804. It is important that the number of cases reported from ICT and Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours was the highest from the region in a day after May 21.

It is much alarming that the positivity rate of COVID-19 from ICT and Rawalpindi district has been showing a continuous upward trend for the last two weeks or so. In the last 24 hours, the positivity ratio from Rawalpindi district has been recorded as 6.07 per cent that is the highest at least in the last one-and-a-half months.

Many health experts believe that the increase in number of COVID-19 cases and a continuous rise in the positivity ratio of the infection ahead of Eidul Azha may cause havoc because of mass scale movement of individuals in different wholesale and retail markets.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Friday reveals that no patient died of COVID-19 from the federal capital in the last 24 hours though 787 patients belonging to ICT had already lost their lives due to the illness.

In the last 24 hours, 183 new patients have been reported from ICT taking tally to 84,266 of which 81,570 have recovered. The number of active cases from the federal capital has jumped to 1909 on Friday after addition of 121 active cases to the existing pool in the last 24 hours.

Death of another Covid-19 patient from Rawalpindi district in the last 24 hours took death toll to 1004 while 84 new patients were reported from the district. To date, a total of 25,538 patients have been reported from the district of which 23,951 patients have recovered.

On Friday, the number of active cases from the district was recorded as 583 of which 38 patients were undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities in the district while 545 were in home isolation.