RAWALPINDI: As many as 229 suspected dengue patients reported to the three government hospitals in the garrison city on Sunday but only 16 of them were found positive.

According to data released by the Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU), 10 new patients arrived at Holy Family Hospital (HFH), two in Benazir Bhutto Hospital and four in the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.

The data further said that five patients were in critical condition. Moreover, 3,490 dengue patients have reported to the three hospitals so far - 1,993 patients were admitted to the HFH, 932 to BBH and 565 to the DHQ Hospital. At present, 17 patients are under treatment in HFH, 11 in BBH and 12 in the DHQ Hospital.

Meanwhile, District Health Officer (DHO) Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia said only one dengue case emerged in the capital on Sunday.

Meanwhile,one person died of Covid-19 in Rawalpindi while nine tested positive on Sunday. As many as 12 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours.

Kaneez Akhtar, 67, a resident of Kahuta, was brought to Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) on Nov 27 where she died. The positivity ratio in the district was calculated at 0.68 per cent. At total of 1,325 samples were collected during the last 24 hours.

According to data, there are 114 active patients in the district - 25 in hospitals and 89 home isolated.

One patient each arrived from the cantonment, city area, Potohar Town, Gujar Khan, Kahuta, Kallar Syedan, Taxila, Attock and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Six patients are admitted to the BBH, seven were in RIU, nine in Fauji Foundation Hospital, two in Bilal Hospital and one in Attock Hospital Rawalpindi.

There are three patients on ventilators, 14 patients on oxygen and eight are stable.

Islamabad

In the federal capital, only 25 cases of Covid-19 were detected and 0.57pc positivity rate was recorded on Sunday, DHO Dr Zaeem Zia said.

As the most virulent variant of Covid-19 called Omicron has been reported in South Africa and travelled to a number of countries, the district administration on Sunday decided to keep positive cases in a quarantine centre established in I-9.

On Saturday, Pakistan put South Africa, Hong Kong, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini and Botswana in category C and imposed a complete ban on direct/indirect inbound travel from these countries.

Pakistani passengers travelling from those countries on extreme emergency will only be allowed after obtaining exemptions and a number of health/testing protocols.

They will undergo a three-day mandatory home quarantine and re-RAT will be conducted on the third day by the civil administration.

RAT positive cases will undergo 10 days’ mandatory quarantine (government/self-paid) while PCR test will be conducted on the 10th day in quarantine.

However, stranded Pakistanis travelling from these countries till December 5 will be allowed without exemption but the mandatory protocols will remain applicable.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) said Pakistan had introduced three categories to deal with Covid-19. He said: “Countries in ‘A’ category are exempted from the mandatory Covid-19 test, travellers from ‘B’ category countries require a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that must be taken within 72 hours of the travel date while countries in ‘C’ category are restricted and people can travel only under specific guidelines.”

Dr Zia said the quarantine centre in I-9 had been reserved for positive passengers travelling from the seven countries.

“However, some of the passengers may not be willing to stay at the facility so we have started contacting hotels to declare them quarantine centres. We cannot stop arrival of positive patients in Pakistan but will make sure that they remained in quarantine.”

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2021