RAWALPINDI: The anti-dengue drive was sped up in the garrison city on Sunday with the District Emergency Response Committee (DERC), comprising parliamentarians, sealing offices of Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Kidney Transplant (RIUT) on Murree Road, three food outlets and a super store in Bahria Town after dengue larvae were found in these premises.

During the surveillance inspection, MNA Tahira Aurangzeb along with Deputy Commissioner Dr Hassan Waqar Cheema found dengue larvae in Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Kidney Transplant and sealed offices of its administration.

They also visited Bahria Town and found dengue larvae in McDonald’s, Roaster and Al-Fatah and sealed these outlets.

The deputy commissioner directed the health teams to visit government departments once again and check the cleanliness and dengue larvae there.

“Those government departments where larvae are found even after issuing the certificate will be sealed,” he said.

He said that all parliamentarians from city and cantonment areas were performing duties to sensitise people about safety measures besides checking the work of government departments to find dengue larvae in high risk union councils. He said there was zero tolerance for violators of the Standard Operating Procedures.

MPA Asma Naz Abbasi visited the Food Street at Double Road along with Rawal Town entomologist and a Punjab Food Authority team. She inspected all the restaurants.

The owners and managers of all restaurants were sensitised to follow dengue SOPs.

Shehansha Tikka was sealed upon larva detection and those who created resistance were arrested by local police on the spot.

Meanwhile, 95 more people went down with the mosquito-borne disease on Sunday, taking the tally to 2736 in current season.

As many as 350 patients arrived in three government run hospitals during the last 24 hours and 95 of them were dengue patients.

Total 229 dengue patients are admitted in the hospitals, including Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital and Benazir Bhutto Hospital.

According to official figures, two dengue patients are critical while the remaining are getting treatment from government hospitals in the garrison city.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2024