COVID-19 cases on the rise in twin cities

Rawalpindi: The number of patients being tested positive for coronavirus illness, COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district has been on a sharp increase ahead of Eidul Azha and experts believe that the outbreak may get more severe in the coming days as there is almost no following of SOPs in markets.

In the last five days, as many as 1,144 new cases have been reported from the region at an average of 229 patients per day. It is important that the average number of patients reported per day from the region dropped down to below 70 in June. Despite the fact that the situation is becoming alarming, one can witness the violation of almost all SOPs in all cattle markets set up in town. Apart from cattle markets set up by the government authorities, there have been hundreds of relatively smaller set ups, ‘dairas’ operating in the district selling sacrificial animals and no one is following SOPs to control spread of COVID-19. In the last 24 hours, a total of 271 new patients have been tested positive for the illness from the twin cities that is the highest number of cases reported in a day from the region in the last 58 days. Data collected by ‘The News’ on Sunday reveals that the virus did not claim any life from the twin cities in the last 24 hours though 1,791 patients belonging to the region had already lost their lives due to COVID-19. The total number of patients so far reported from the region has reached 110,283 on Sunday. According to In-charge District COVID-19 Cell Rawalpindi Dr. Hafiz Muhammad Jawad Zahid, the positivity ratio of COVID-19 from Rawalpindi district has been recorded as 7.51 per cent in the last 24 hours that is highest in the last two months.

On the other hand, the positivity rate of COVID-19 in the federal capital has crossed the figure of eight per cent. The positivity in ICT has been recorded as 8.45 per cent in the last 24 hours, said District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday. In the last 24 hours, as many as 107 new patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 from Rawalpindi district taking tally to 25,720 of which 24,066 patients have achieved a cure. As many as 1,004 patients from the district had already lost their lives due to the illness. According to the district health department, a total of 43 confirmed patients were undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities in town on Sunday while some 607 confirmed patients of the illness from the district were in home isolation. From ICT, the virus has so far claimed 787 lives while in the last 24 hours, another 164 patients have been reported positive taking the tally to 84,563 of which 81,780 patients have recovered.