Reader of Chief Justice, staff of two other judges test positive
Zubair Qureshi
A number of employees of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) tested positive on Monday and the IHC administration after their tests came positive, sealed their offices and sent them home on a 14-day isolation period.
Reader of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah, Imran Khan had undergone coronavirus test at the National Institute of Health (NIH) on Friday. On Monday he received a call from the NIH and was told his test was positive and he should quarantine himself for a period of 14 days at his home.
Secretary to Justice Fiaz Ahmed Anjum Jandran, Mian Sohail and Secretary to another judge of the IHC Justice Ghulam Azam Qambrani, Imtiaz Ahmed have also reported their tests as being positive.
Their offices have been sealed and orders have been issued to conduct coronavirus tests of their contacts as well as colleagues in the high court, an official of the IHC told Pakistan Observer on Monday.
Meanwhile, Islamabad reported 330 cases in last 24 hours taking the tally of confirmed cases to 5,330 likewise, with 3 deaths during this period number of deaths reported so far from Islamabad reached 52.
While talking to Pakistan Observer District Health Officer Dr Zaeem Zia said his teams were in the fields working on contact tracing and so far samples of some 7,555 contacts have been collected.
District health department teams are going house-to-house doing risk communication, interviewing the infected persons, their family members and tracing the trail of their past two weeks activities/ meetings etc. “We are expecting a surge in the number of positive cases of coronavirus and among the infected persons reported from Islamabad so far, almost half are those traced by the District Health teams,” said Dr Zaeem Zia.
Besides, coronavirus, we are also dong awareness on dengue and our Lady Health Workers—some 1,200—while interviewing coronavirus suspected cases and their families also inquire if they had some open area where water is accumulated or some tyres in the backyard. Dengue is also a major concern of the health authorities that poses a huge challenge every year in this season.
According to the District Health Authorities, so far only three patients have been reported and admitted in the Capital Hospital who are suffering from dengue virus. Our teams have visited 159 factories, 157 tyre shops, challaned 372 places for not disposing junks and traced 259 garbage spots, said a member of the district health office team.
She said 9,000 pamphlets have also been distributed during the field visits to make people realize dengue and its impact.