Zubair Qureshi
The capital administration Wednesday ended lockdown in Sectors G-6/1, G-7/2 and G-10/4 after promising results were reported from these areas even before completion of the 14-day lockdown.
According to a notification issued by the District Magistrate/Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat, on Wednesday the residential areas of the Sectors G-6/1, G-7/2 and G-10/4 are being de-sealed with effect from July 8, 7:00 p.m. however, the de-sealed areas will be regulated by the prevailing orders of the Section 144 dated March 23, 2020 amended from time to time, the notification further said.
In the federal capital the number of patients as well as new cases has dropped to minimum level and according to the Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad Hamza Shafqaat on June 15, some 635 new cases of coronavirus were reported in one day but on July 7 the number has reduced to just 63.
Because of the smart lockdown and effective monitoring, tracing, testing and isolating, the federal capital’s ratings have gone up in ensuring Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with regard to coronavirus, he said.
During the last 24 hours, not a single death was reported, said a doctor of the Pakistan Institute of medical Science, adding the number of new cases has also gone down drastically as earlier we received around 100 new cases but now it has been reduced to five to six.
While talking to Pakistan Observer, public health specialist, Ali Raza said prevalence of Covid-19 had dropped from 25% to 12%, and according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) standards 5% is the ideal ratio when ease in lockdown can be recommended.
When asked which factors contributed to the drop in Covid-19 cases in Pakistan, he said it was partially due to the policy of smart lockdown and partially due to the natural immunity of the people of Pakistan. Another reason, he said can be attributed to the recession of viruses, is that it is ‘different’ and weaker in Pakistan than in China or Europe.
Pakistan on Wednesday recorded 237,489 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 4,980 deaths that means in the last twenty-four hours, 2,980 new cases surfaced and 83 deaths were reported.
Health experts and the WHO too have expressed their concerns over reduction in the number of tests from an average 30,000 to 25,000 and now even fewer than that. As EID-ul-Aza is coming closer, we need to be proactive to ensure strict implementations of SOPs, said Ali Raza.
