Zubair Qureshi
The federal capital on Saturday reported 383 new cases of Covid-19 in the last twenty-four hours taking the overall number of cases to 98,339 while after one expiry in the last one day, the toll caused by Covid-19 climbed to 861.
According to District Health Officer (DHO) of Islamabad, Dr Zaeem Zia, these 383 persons tested positive against 5,386 tests conducted for Covid-19 that showed the Covid-19 positivity rate at 7.11 per cent.
Despite the accelerated vaccination drive in the city, the situation is far from worse and the residents need to strictly follow all the Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) for Covid-19 without fail, he said.
It may be mentioned here that Islamabad has been declared ahead of all other cities of Pakistan with regard to vaccination of its eligible population.
Dr Zia also urged all those who have not yet received Covid-19 shots to get jabs and those who have not received text messages on their mobile phones despite passage of the due time, to visit any vaccination centre close to their places and get vaccinated.
All those who have got first dose of Sputnik V on August 9th or 10th are advised to get second dose from respective centres on August 30th and 31st positively and without fail, said Dr Zaeem adding the second dose shall not be administered after August 31, 2021
Meanwhile, in wake of the increasing number of Covid-19 patients, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has decided to suspend elective surgeries.
However, emergency surgeries will be performed as per routine and there will be no refusal policy for such cases.
According to a senior doctor of the hospital, due to the heavy load of Covid-19 patients in the fourth wave, the services of all elective/planned surgeries and operative procedures are suspended except emergency surgeries only.
