Zubair Qureshi
The federal capital on Saturday recorded 241 cases of Covid-19 and five deaths during the past twenty-four hours.
This is the lowest number of cases the city has seen in past thirty days. With these latest figures, Islamabad’s tally of cases surged to 68,906 while the total deaths are 631.
The federal capital has also seen 55,828 cases recovered so far from the virus.
However, according to the health officials this drop in cases is a temporary phenomenon and the infections might surge back to their high figures if violations of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) continue in the city.
Meanwhile, the district authorities have delayed smart lockdown in those sub sectors of Islamabad that are the worst hit by coronavirus.
This delay in imposing smart lockdown or sealing the G-6/1, G-6/2, G-7/2, G-8/1, G-9/2, G-10/4 and G-11/3 is due to the shortage of manpower and engagement of police and the district administration in maintaining peace.
Officials of the capital administration said the District Health Office had recommended a couple of days ago sealing of the seven areas due to an increase in the number of positive cases there.
In response, the deputy commissioner office issued a notification to seal the above-mentioned subsectors.
A senior officer of the administration on condition of anonymity said as per the notification the sub-sectors were to be sealed for 10 days on April 13 but due to shortage of police officials, the areas are yet to be sealed, he added.
Meanwhile, the health experts fear resumption of educational institutions to operate classes from 9th to 12th grade along with O/A level from April 19 may cause further spread of the disease in the city.
Experts say that the concerned government authorities should rethink the decision of reopening educational institutions at least until the positivity rate does not come below five per cent in the region.
A day earlier, on Friday, the number of active cases from the twin cities were recorded as 15,200 that made around 19.38 per cent of all active cases present in the country, 78,425.
