392 Covid-19 cases from twin cities make situation ‘alarming’

Islamabad: Confirmation of 392 patients positive for coronavirus illness, COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district in a day has made the situation much alarming showing the fifth wave of the outbreak has started hitting population hard in this region of the country.

The increase in the number of patients reported in a day from the twin cities can be termed as the sharpest even if compared with the last four outbreaks of the infection as the number of patients reported from the region in the first week of January this year was 530 making an average of 76 patients per day.

On Wednesday, 180 patients were reported positive from the region while on Tuesday, the number was 135. Much alarming is the fact that the positivity rate of COVID-19 in the region has also doubled in the last two days. It was recorded as around 6.16 per cent in the last 24 hours while on Tuesday, it was around three per cent in the twin cities.

District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia has advised everyone to get vaccinated and follow SOPs. 284 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 from federal capital against 4,509 tests conducted at a positivity rate of 6.30 per cent, he said. He added there is a very sharp upward trend in positivity. It is worth mentioning here that all educational institutions in the Rawalpindi district would resume functioning from Friday (today) after winter vacations.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Thursday reveals that confirmation of another 392 COVID-19 cases from the twin cities in the last 24 hours has taken the total number of patients so far reported from the region to 146,808 of which 2,191 patients have lost their lives.

Another 284 patients have been tested positive for the disease in the last 24 hours from the federal capital taking the tally to 109,944 of which 107,791 patients have recovered. The number of active cases of the disease has jumped to 1186 on Thursday in ICT that is the highest number of active cases recorded on a day in the federal capital after October 17.

Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours, 108 new patients have been tested positive from Rawalpindi district taking the tally to 36,864 of which 35,314 have achieved a cure. To date, a total of 1,224 patients from the district have died of COVID-19. On Thursday, as many as 17 patients from the district were undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities while the number of confirmed patients in home isolation was 309.