ISLAMABAD: With the capital reporting 136 positive cases on Sunday, the district administration is hoping the positivity rate will fall further by up to 1pc in a week.

As many as 137 people were infected on Saturday and 123 on Friday.

The maximum positivity ratio recorded in November was 10pc, however, the weekly data of that month showed it to be 7pc. The rate is measured on the basis of positive cases out of 100 samples.

District Health Officer Dr Zaeem Zia told Dawn that the current positivity ratio stood at 3.4pc and it was hoped that the rate would drop further by another 0.5pc to 1pc in a week.

The national positivity ratio, on the other hand, mostly remains between 6pc to 7pc. Islamabad’s mortality rate is around 1pc whereas it is 2pc at the national level.

“On Sunday, we got confirmation of 136 cases from around 3,600 samples collected on Saturday. Not a single patient has died in a day which is a good sign,” Dr Zia said.

He said the district administration had been strictly following the trace, test and quarantine (TTQ) policy under which whenever a patient was found positive, all his contacts were tested.

Current ratio stands at 3.4pc; Pindi sees drop in cases

“Due to this policy we managed to stop the virus from rapidly multiplying,” the health official said.

The approval of the TTQ policy was given during the tenure of former special assistant to the prime minister, Dr Zafar Mirza, in April during a meeting of the National Coordination Committee on Covid-19.

After the meeting, Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar had said it was a new policy under which provincial governments, with the support of district administrations, would locate contacts of confirmed patients and test them. He had said though this would increase the number of tests, it would be helpful in breaking the chain of the virus.

Rawalpindi

The number of people contracting the virus reduced further in the garrison city as 24 people tested positive on Sunday with no casualty being reported.

At present, the district has 964 active patients with 245 in hospitals and the remaining home isolated. As many as 14 patients are critical in hospitals while 89 are on oxygen.

The positivity rate in Rawalpindi district has been recorded at 6pc, having reduced from 7pc reported last week. Though recovery rate is high as mostly young people were infected by the virus, mortality rate stands at 5pc in the district with most casualties being recorded among people aged 50 and above.

According to statistics, during the last 10 months, 412 patients who succumbed to the virus were aged over 50 years, 70 were in the age group of 41-50, 37 people who lost their lives were in the age range of 11-40 years while the death of only one child was reported.

Since March, 12,638 cases were detected in Rawalpindi district, 11,194 recovered and 525 lost their lives.

Commissioner retired Capt Mohammad Mehmood told Dawn that the number of people testing positive had fallen in the last week compared to the first two weeks of December. He said in Rawalpindi Division, only 34 patients were reported with 24 from Rawalpindi and a total of 10 from Attock and Jhelum districts.

Attock

The district crossed the tally of 100 active patients, the highest ever, after six more people were infected by the virus on Sunday.

Among the active patients, one is hospitalised and 100 others are restricted under home isolation.

District Health Authority Chief Executive Dr Jawad Elahi said new cases emerged in the district during the last 24 hours. Five of them were from Pindigheb and one from Attock city, adding that it was the highest single day spike in Pindigheb town.

He said Attock city had 27 active patients while 26 each were in Fatehjang and Hazro, 21 in Pindigheb and one in Jand. So far, 26 people have died of Covid-19 in the district. The health official said 890 patients have recovered in the district. — Additional reporting by Amjad Iqbal

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2020