ISLAMABAD: A decline was seen in the number of Covid-19 cases and the positivity rate in the capital on Friday.

Officials of the capital administration said 53 cases were reported on Friday compared to 91 on Thursday.

During the last 24 hours, 4,744 tests were conducted among the contacts of the confirmed cases and suspects and 53 were found infected with the positivity rate of 1.11 per cent. The positivity rate on Thursdayw as 1.79pc.

Rawalpindi

After four days, a death from Covid-19 was reported in the Rawalpindi district on Friday while 24 people tested positive and 40 patients were discharged from hospitals after their recovery in the last 24 hours.

Officials said 1333 samples were collected in the last 24 hours out of which 24 tested positive showing a positivity rate of 1.8 per cent.

Shahnaz Abbasi, 50, a resident of Muslim Town, was taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on October 7 where she died.

In Rawalpindi district, there are 434 active patients - 60 in hospitals and 374 home isolated.

Three of the new patients reproted from the cantonment areas, two from city areas, 11 from Potohar Town, two each from Kahuta, Attock and Taxila, one patient ecah arrived from Gujar Khan and Islamabad.

As many as 60 patients were admitted in different hospitals, including two in Holy Family Hospital, 20 in Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), 26 in Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) and 12 in Fauji Foundation Hospital (FFH). There are three patients on ventilators, 29 on oxygen and 28 are stable.

Passengers protest quarantine policy

Some pilgrims returning from Iraq staged a protest at Islamabad International Airport on Friday over the government’s quarantine policy.

They were being quarantined after one of the passengers tested positive for Covid-19 during rapid antigen test.

According to sources, passengers arriving from abroad are subjected to Covid-19-related SOPs by the health authorities and those testing positive are quarantined at a hotel.

One of the female passengers tested positive for Covid-19 while the others were quarantined for one day. The protesters demanded the government to abolish the quarantine policy.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2021