ISLAMABAD: With the arrival of winter, the weekly Covid-19 positivity ratio has started increasing which is being considered as an early warning for the whole country because during all four waves cases started increasing from the capital.

Meanwhile, four people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in Rawalpindi district on Sunday and the positivity ratio was recorded at 0.3 per cent during the last 24 hours. A total of 1,306 samples were collected and 1,302 of them were declared negative.

It may be noted that with the threat of the Omicron variant looming, more than 20pc of the population in the district is still not vaccinated; 38pc in the district is fully vaccinated while 50pc is partially vaccinated. The total population of Rawalpindi district is over 4.2 million and 2.1m people have received one dose of vaccination and 303,327 people are fully vaccinated.

On the other hand, not a single case of dengue fever was reported during the weekend.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services, requesting not to be quoted, said the weekly positivity had increased by 0.3pc as it was 0.8pc last week and 0.58pc a week earlier.

“During the last week of November, a little over 27,000 tests were conducted of which 159 samples were found positive. However, during last week over 29,000 tests were conducted but 261 cases were found positive.”

The fact is that Islamabad has always remained a trendsetter for the whole country as every time cases started increasing from Islamabad and later the same situation reflected across the country.

“We fear that the cases may again start rising as positivity increases during the winter season,” he said.

District Health Officer Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia while talking to Dawn agreed that the situation was not as good as it should be.

“We suggest the masses to get themselves vaccinated. All those who have not gotten their second dose in due date should walk to the nearest centre to get the second dose as vaccination is the best shield against the virus,” he said.

While replying to a question, Dr Zia said that healthcare workers and people over the age of 50 years should get booster dose of vaccine.

“Booster dose is being given to those who had gotten their second dose at least six months ago. Sinopharm, Sinovac and Cansino are available at all centres. Those who were vaccinated with Pfizer should go to the mass vaccination centres such as the one in F-9 Park,” he said.

Talking about dengue, he said the season seems to have ended in the city as not a single case was reported over the weekend.

Rawalpindi

A senior official of the district administration told Dawn that the government launched the reach every door (RED) drive to vaccinate people from Oct 25 to Nov 12 and during the campaign, more than 1.1 million people were vaccinated. Moreover, five people were diagnosed with dengue fever on Sunday.

However, he said, the second dose will be administered to people in the second phase of the campaign, adding health authority teams were busy in the measles and rubella drive from Nov 15 to Nov 27. The authority has been asked to create awareness among people about vaccination.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ali said the administration was striving hard to vaccinate the entire population and in this regard, it has set the target to vaccinate 50,000 people on a daily basis.

He urged people to get vaccinated as soon as possible to avoid further spread of the deadly virus.

In Rawalpindi district, there are 127 active patients. As many as 27 patients are in hospitals including 16 who arrived from other districts and 100 patients are home isolated. Three patients were reported from the garrison city and one patient each arrived from Taxila and Kahuta.

There are four patients at Benazir Bhutto Hospital, eight patients at Rawalpindi Institute of Urology, 13 patients at Fauji Foundation Hospital while one patient each at Bilal Hospital and Attock Hospital Rawalpindi.

Two patients are on ventilators in Rawalpindi, 14 patients are on oxygen support and 11 are stable.

As per data share by RawalpindiMedical University (RMU), two dengue fever patients were reported in Holy Family Hospital and three in Benazir Bhutto Hospital.

Presently, 29 dengue patients are admitted in three hospitals including 18 in Holy Family Hospital, seven in Benazir Bhutto Hospital and four patients in District Headquarters Hospital.

As many as 3,522 denguepatients have so far been reported in three government hospitals so far including 2,009 in Holy Family Hospital, 942 in Benazir Bhutto Hospital and 571 in District Headquarters Hospital.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2021