The district administration has issued 3,662 notices and imposed a fine of Rs 1,432,500 to various violators for not following anti-dengue standard operating procedures (SOPs) from January 1 to date.
District Coordinator Epidemics Prevention and Control (DCEPC) Dr Sajjad Mehmood, while giving details of the punitive actions, informed that the district administration had registered 591 FIRs, sealed 233 premises and issued challans to 746 on violations of SOPs in various areas of the district.
He added that 1,334 anti-dengue teams during indoor surveillance from January 1 to date checked 4,303,327 houses and found dengue larvae at 14,954 homes. Similarly, he informed that 597 teams during outdoor surveillance inspected 1,752,596 spots and detected larvae at 1,782 places.
Meanwhile, Dr Sajjad informed that around 24 confirmed cases had been reported in the district this year, including 12 from Potohar town urban area, four from Kahutta, three from Rawalpindi Cantonment, two from Municipal Corporation Rawalpindi, and one each from Chaklala Cantonment, Gujjar Khan and Potohar town rural areas.
Dr Sajjad informed that anti-dengue activities were also being carried out in the private housing societies, whether registered with RDA, Cooperatives or unregistered housing societies.
The health officer added that the present spell of rains had increased the threat of mosquito breeding which needed to be tackled on an emergency basis, while the Pakistan Meteorological Department has forecast more rains in the next week.
Dr Sajjad informed that puddles of water, which get stagnant due to rain, become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and spread diseases like malaria and dengue fever.
He urged the residents to use mosquito nets or repellants like mats and coils to avoid the leech’s bite.
