Covid-19 claims six lives in Pindi

At least six people died of novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Rawalpindi while 238 new cases were reported from Islamabad during the last 24 hours, health authorities said on Thursday.

Covid-19 pandemic continue to surge in the federal capital as 238 new cases were reported from the city during the last 24 hours, a report issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said.

According to an official of NCOC, as many as 67 cases were reported on Wednesday while 159 cases were reported on Tuesday.

He said so far 36,721 cases were reported from the federal capital while 398 deaths were reported from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). He added 31,332 patients had recovered completely.

In Rawalpindi, there were at least 110 patents under treatment at Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, and RIUKT. Among these 88 were on oxygen while eight patients were on ventilators.

After the coronavirus alert in government hospitals, the District Health Office has increased testing for Covid-19. DHO officials said that in the second wave of Covid-19, most of the patients coming to the hospitals were those in need of oxygen to survive. They said that the smart lockdown imposed by the district administration has proved ineffective and violations of SOPs have increased in the markets.

Meanwhile, on the direction of Ministry of National Health Services, the district administration of Islamabad had continued smart lockdown in different streets of the capital to reduce transmission of the infection in the selected streets and other sectors.

They also started taking actions on violation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) related with the corona while visiting marriage halls, markets and petrol pumps by its inspection teams.

The administration also sealed schools, shops, workshop and restaurants on violation of SOPs. The inspection teams also issued notices to marriage halls besides imposing fines on owners of different shops. Commenting on the situation, an official of Ministry of National Health Services said that several local level administrative decisions were made to control the disease.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2020.