RAWALPINDI: One person died of Covid-19 in the district on Tuesday whereas nine people were found infected by the virus during the last 24 hours.

As per data shared by the Punjab government, positivity ratio in the district was recorded at 0.5 per cent and seven people were discharged from hospitals after recovering. A total of 1,510 samples were collected out of which 1,501 were declared negative.

The deceased was identified as Khadija Begum, 76, a resident of Al-Haram City.

District Health Authority (DHA) spokesman Dr Waqar Ahmed said no one had so far been diagnosed with the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

“The teams of Health Department Rawalpindi are carrying out their duties at Islamabad International Airport where tests of people coming from category C countries are being carried out and they are also quarantined at Shalimar Hotel in Saddar,” he said.

In light of guidelines given by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the countries where cases of the Omicron variant were spreading rapidly had been included in category C and standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued for passengers travelling from these countries.

He said in the last three days, 15 people from category C countries had travelled to Rawalpindi and had undergone the regular Omicron test at the airport and were being quarantined for three days.

There are 15 countries in category C and passengers from these countries can come to Pakistan only with special permission, he said, adding even if their test result is negative, they would have to go through mandatory quarantine of three days following which they will be tested again and then allowed to enter Pakistan.

As many as 100 people can be quarantined at a time in the quarantine facility in Rawalpindi.

There are 85 active patients in the district out of whom 19 are in hospitals; nine are from other districts and 66 patients are home isolated.

Four of the newly diagnosed patients arrived from cantonment areas while three from city areas and one patient each arrived from Kallar Syedan and Taxila, respectively.

Four patients are admitted in Benazir Bhutto Hospital, three patients at Fauji Foundation Hospital while 12 at Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU).

There are two patients on ventilators in Rawalpindi, nine are on oxygen support and eight are stable.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2021