RAWALPINDI: As many as 13 patients tested positive for Covid-19 in the garrison city on Sunday while 180 suspected patients were waiting for their results.

“The number of patients in government hospitals has been decreasing in the last one week, and a few serious patients need ventilators. Some patients who needed oxygen have now been shifted to ventilators due to their condition. The graph of serious patients is static,” said Commissioner Rawalpindi retired Capt Mohammad Mehmood.

Moreover, 12 new suspected patients reported at filter clinics while results of 20 patients arrived from National Institute of Health (NIH) showing 13 of them as infected. The total number of confirmed patients in the district reached 6,383.

As many as positive 486 patients are under treatment in hospitals and 479 isolated in their houses.

Apart from this, 180 suspected patients were admitted to four hospitals and their samples have been sent to NIH and Benazir Bhutto Hospital and Holy Family Hospital laboratories and their results are awaited.

The local administrations also keep 6,570 people on quarantine who had been close contacts of the confirmed patients.

In the last three and a half months, 16,067 people tested in Rawalpindi district and 10,394 people tested negative and remaining tested positive.

“We conducted test for Covid-19 of all those who came to hospital with complaints of cough, sore throat, high fever and body aches besides the close contacts of the positive patients,” said a senior health official.

However, he said there was no facility to conduct tests at the union council level. He said the main focus of the government was to manage critical patients in hospitals.

Meanwhile, the district administration on Sunday found 19 shops open and sealed them for violating the lockdown and imposed Rs45,000 fines of their owners.

As many as 12 vehicles were impounded and the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) imposed a fine of Rs19,000 on public transporters for violating SOPs. Seven vehicle owners were issued warnings.

Commissioner retired Capt Mohammad Mehmood said 6,383 patients had tested positive in Rawalpindi district, 544 in Attock, 423 in Jhelum and 271 in Chakwal.

He said 273 patients died of the virus in Rawalpindi, 19 in Attock, nine in Jhelum and 36 in Chakwal. However, he said, 6,115 patients recovered in the division - 5,145 in Rawalpindi, 362 in Attock, 395 in Jhelum and 213 in Chakwal.

“At present, 70 patients are admitted to the High Dependency Unit and 12 of them are on ventilators and 43 on oxygen whereas the condition of 15 is stable,” said the commissioner.

He said there was no shortage of ventilators in the six health facilities created for coronavirus patients as 66 ventilators and 211 oxygen cylinder-attached beds were lying vacant there.

He said there was still a need to create public awareness about the safety measures and implementation of SOPs in public places as citizens have assumed that the virus was near an end.

Taxila

Seven more patients tested positive in Attock during the last 24 hours, taking the number to 544 in the district.

District focal person for Covid-19 Dr Asif Arbab Niazi said four of the new patients belonged to Attock city, one to Hazro and three to Fatehjang.

He confirmed that Attock city had become a hotspot where a large number of positive patients were being reported on a daily basis. He said the number of active patients in the district also increased to 163.

Mr Niazi said the number of suspected cases had also increased to 3,916 while screening of 7,497 people was carried out so far in which 3,128 tested negative.

He said the results of 244 suspected patients were awaited. He said out of the 516 positive patients 157 had been home isolated and were asymptomatic while 362 had recovered.

Additional reporting by Amjad Iqbal

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2020