Zubair Qureshi
During the three Eid holidays, Sunday-Tuesday, Islamabad saw an ever-increasing number of picnickers at various tourist spots of the city including Lakeview Park, Daman-e-Koh, Faisal Masjid, Rawal Dam and hiking trails, etc.
These pleasure-seekers included families, youths and individuals to spend the Eid days enjoying themselves at these places.
The fact that Murree and Swat administrations had disallowed entry of tourists fearing an alarming number of arrivals, one could see huge crowds at these points and ironically, police and district administration of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) looked helpless before these crowds.
On Monday, the second day of Eid, the crowd was so overwhelming on the Faisal Avenue that police had to block the road in the Sector F-8/4 leading to Faisal Masjid.
The youths, however undeterred by these blockades decided to march towards the mosque on foot and it was quite a scene perturbing the police as well as the residents of the sector.
Interestingly, very few of these picnickers were wearing facemasks or hand gloves and one could see three to four youngsters on the bikes quite indifferent to health advisory of the government.
Islamabad on Tuesday reported 1,728 confirmed cases of coronavirus while so far 17 deaths have taken place in the city due to virus.
During the last 24 hours a total of 7,252 tests were conducted to ascertain coronavirus in the residents and of this number 87 were tested positive. On Monday, the number was 1641.
“if we continue to violate SOPs or health advisory the number might further increase creating quite a challenge for the doctors and health workers,” said Dr Zaeem Zia District Health Officer of Islamabad.
Meanwhile, the Islamabad Capital Authority distributed health kits that included sanitizers, wipes, face masks, soaps, kalonji, honey, water bottles among the health teams that were on duty on the Eid Days and the senior officials spent time with them to boost their morale and to encourage them in this hour of difficulty.
