Zubair Qureshi
Although the number of coronavirus cases in Islamabad have reduced there is no decrease in the number of tests and more than 100,000 tests have been conducted and the daily average of cases is 3,000.
Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad Hamza Shafqaat while talking to media here Monday said the results in G-9/2 & 3 as well as Karachi Company have reduced to almost zero.
Islamabad on Monday reported 12,643 confirmed cases of corona virus and 127 deaths against Sunday’s figures 12,395 and 122 respectively. This means in the last twenty-four hours 248 new cases of COVID-19 and five deaths were recorded. Due to smart lockdown the number significantly reduced said Hamza Shafqaat adding, “We have been conducting around 3,000 tests per day which can be compared with any country across the globe in terms of per million populations. Islamabad has a population of around two million. But in Rawalpindi, only 100 tests per day were being carried out despite the fact that the city has a population of five million,” he said.
Moreover, we imposed heavy fines on the violators of SOPs due to which people have started following them. You can now see people wearing masks and washing/sanitizing hands upon entering or leaving a specific building/place, he said.
He said 1,400 of the total 3,000 were conducted in private labs which meant that people wanted to get themselves tested even by paying around Rs7,000 per test however, only 189 people were confirmed as infected, he said.
He said though the number of cases had reduced, Eidul Azha and Muharram will be a major challenge.
Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Joint Executive Director Dr Minhajus Siraj also confirmed that the patient burden on the hospital had reduced.
“Almost two weeks ago, we had seven to eight patients on the waiting list which meant that they needed oxygenated beds but beds were not vacant. However, for the last few days, we do not have any patient waiting for a bed. In fact, we have a number of vacant beds in the hospital,” he said.
Dr Siraj said we were expecting 300,000 cases in Pakistan by the end of June, and arrangements had been made in this regard. But cases just passed the 200,000 figure on June 27 so there were ample beds available. “Though the number of daily cases has reduced, it should not be considered as flattening of the curve because another surge is expected in the coming days. Still we have challenges like Eidul Azha, Moharram and there could be another wave of Covid-19 in those days, he warned.
