Zubair Qureshi
The health authorities have decided to close down the Out-Patient Department of the Federal Government Services Hospital (Polyclinic Hospital) from January 28 (today) to January 31 after an increasing number of the hospital’s staff has been found infected with Covid-19 and its variant Omicron.
According to District Health Officer of Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia the OPD of the hospital will remain closed on Friday (today) till Monday (January 31) as majority of the doctors, nurses and paramedical staff tested positive.
A senior doctor of the hospital wishing not to be named said around 20 nurses, 13 doctors and 35 paramedics and support staff have tested positive causing panic and fear among the rest of the employees of the hospital forcing the authorities to take the difficult decision.
Not only Polyclinic, but the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) is also affected by the increasing number of Covid-19 and Omicron cases and the hospital on Thursday restricted its OPD timing declaring it would not register patients in the OPD after 10:00 a.m.
Likewise, the number of surgeries have also been reduced and according to a notification issued by the PIMS on Thursday only those surgeries and operations which are essential would be performed due to the increasing number of cases detected among the hospital staff, doctors, nurses and paramedics.
According to the DHQ Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia more than 80 percent of the eligible population of Islamabad has already been vaccinated while vaccination of 12-year old and above is underway at various schools and colleges of Islamabad.
At present around 60 schools and educational institutions already stand sealed due to Covid-19 cases found at their premises while different markets, businesses and offices are being closely monitored for prevention of the virus spread.
A number of streets in various sectors of Islamabad have also been sealed after Covid-19 cases were found there.
Meanwhile, Islamabad continues to register an increasing number of COVID-19 cases and 1286 new cases were added to the tally of Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours after 7,665 tests conducted during this period.
The Covid-19 positivity rate in Islamabad was registered at 16 per cent on Thursday.
