Islamabad’s positivity reaches 7pc
Zubair Qureshi
The federal capital on Sunday recorded 6.9 per cent Covid-19 positivity, almost 7 per cent from 5.53 per cent a day earlier. According to the National Command & Operation Centre (NCOC) a total of 5,093 tests were conducted in last twenty-four hours after which 354 were found infected with Covid-19.
A day earlier the positivity rate was 5.53 per cent as 299 individuals had tested positive after 5,407 tests conducted in 24 hours.
This is quite worrying a sign, said District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Zaeem Zia while talking to Pakistan Observer adding the positivity rate has jumped by 1.5 per cent.
One death was also caused by Covid-19 in last one day taking the toll to 969.
There are 110,963 confirmed cases of Covid-19 after 354 new cases reported in last one day. Likewise, there are 107,969 cases recovered from Covid-19 in the federal capital.
A day earlier, Covid-19 claimed two lives and infected over 450 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad in a single day.
Meanwhile the F-9 vaccination centre is opening from Monday (today) and according to Dr Zaeem Zia the decision had been taken to facilitate residents of the city.
The vaccination centre in F-9 Park, which had around 200 employees and inoculated over 3,500 people on a daily basis, was suddenly closed in the first week of the current month, with rumours going around that it was shut down on the pressure of influential people who came to walk in the park.
Reacting to the rumours, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan had said it was purely an administrative decision and people should not link it to any controversy.
“Since 77pc of the residents had already been vaccinated and the mobile vaccination facility also introduced, it was decided to close the centre,” Dr Sultan had said, adding that there was no proposal to close any other vaccination centre in the city.
Resident of the federal capital, on the other hand, were of the view that the F-9 Park was the only centre where people did not have to wait for vaccination and had proper parking arrangement.
Meanwhile, an official of the Ministry of National Health Services, requesting not to be named, said that the closure of F-9 Park vaccination centre had shifted the burden on other centres.
“Chances of the virus spreading had increased at other centres as people had to wait for hours,” he said.
When contacted, Dr Zia confirmed that the NCOC had directed that the F-9 vaccination centre be opened from January 17.
“It will become functional from Monday,” he said, adding that the decision had been made to facilitate people as the government did not want them to suffer.
