Zubair Qureshi
After a gap of four days, the federal capital once again reported more than 400 cases of coronavirus, 417 to be exact in a period of twenty-four hours. On Nov 27 last, Islamabad had registered 447 cases.
Since then the one-day count of Covid-19 had declined below 400. On Thursday, however, the cases of coronavirus once again showed an upward trend ringing alarm bells for the health authorities.
According to the District health officer (DHO) of Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia, five deaths were also reported during the last twenty-four hour period and the teams of the District Health Department were busy in tracing the contacts of the Covid-19 patients and putting them in quarantine.
With these latest figures, the total number of cases in Islamabad have reached 31,165 while the death toll stands at 329. Some 414 cases also qualified to be categorized among the recovered cases, he further said.
In the last twenty-four hours, 6,306 tests for Covid-19 were conducted and the positivity rate remained 6.6pc, he said.
Meanwhile, the National Bank branch located in Sector F-10/4 was sealed after a bank employee tested positive. According to the bank’s senior officers the employee in fact had not attended the bank for some days on the complaint of fever. He was at home when his test report came positive. “As a preventive measure and in order to ensure the health of the staff and customers, we thought it necessary to seal the bank until Monday, Dec 7,” said he.
Meanwhile, members of the National Assembly of Pakistan belonging to the Young Parliamentarians’ Forum (YPF) were given a detailed briefing on the Policy Issues faced by Pakistan related to Covid-19 and Pakistan’s Constitutional Journey on Provincial Autonomy at a virtual capacity building session. The session was organized by UNDP-PILDAT in collaboration with UNFPA and the Government of Canada.
Speakers at the Virtual Capacity Building Session included senior journalist Fahd Husain and President PILDAT Ahmed Bilal Mehboob.
In a detailed presentation Fahd Husain briefed the participants on the policy challenges faced by Pakistan during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He shared with MNAs that the Education and Economy were the worst hit areas and the fallout will be experienced in the days to come.
The number of out of school children will also increase as their parents are not able to pay the fees of the schools as their income suffered due to the pandemic.
He emphasised on the parliamentarians that they should make the Parliament more effective in dealing with the pandemic. Parliament should debate the reports and seek opinion from the experts.
