New wave of corona has started: DHO ICT

Islamabad : A continuous increase in the number of cases of coronavirus illness, COVID-19 is being witnessed in Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district along with a rise in the positivity rate of the infection hinting towards another wave of the outbreak.

In the last 24 hours, as many as 130 new patients have been tested positive for COVID-19 from the region which is the highest number of cases reported in a day from the twin cities in the last 98 days. Another 36 cases of COVID-19 Omicron variant have been reported from the federal capital taking the total number of Omicron variant cases from ICT to 177 on Thursday. The positivity of COVID-19 has jumped to 2.36 per cent in ICT in the last 24 hours, said District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia.

He added the new wave of COVID-19 has just started. He advised individuals to get vaccinated and follow SOPs. The number of confirmed cases of the illness reported in a day from ICT has jumped to 104, he said. It is important that in the last 24 hours, the positivity rate of the infection has jumped to 1.64 per cent in Rawalpindi district that was below 0.5 per cent some two weeks back.

The virus claimed no life from the region in the last three days though 294 new patients were tested positive from the twin cities in the last 72 hours showing the outbreak started hitting population hard in this region of the country. Out of a total of 145,592 patients so far reported from the region, 2,191 had lost their lives due to the illness. Data collected by ‘The News’ on Thursday has revealed that in the last 24 hours, another 104 patients have been tested positive for the disease from the federal capital taking tally to 108,984 of which 967 have lost their lives while 107,528 patients have recovered. The number of active cases of COVID-19 in the federal capital has gone up to 489 after addition of another 84 cases on Thursday.

Meanwhile, another 26 patients were diagnosed with COVID-19 from Rawalpindi district taking tally to 36,608 of which 1,224 had lost their lives while 35,266 had recovered. The number of active cases of the disease from Rawalpindi district has jumped to 118. According to District Health Office Rawalpindi, as many as 14 confirmed patients belonging to Rawalpindi district were undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities while 104 patients were in home isolation on Thursday.