MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s capital and its suburban areas will revert to a total lockdown for one week starting Friday, as 45 more persons including 10 doctors, tested positive for Covid-19 in addition to 29 others from four other districts, officials said on Wednesday.

As many as 74 persons tested positive over the past 24 hours, the highest number in a single day since the outbreak of the pandemic in the territory, pushing the total number of cases to 518, said Minister for Information Technology and spokesperson for the government Dr Mustafa Bashir Abbasi.

He said: “45 of the fresh patients belong to or are based in Muzaffarabad and include 10 postgraduate trainee doctors, while nine are from Bhimber, seven each from Mirpur and Kotli and six from Poonch.”

Talking to Dawn, Deputy Commissioner Muzaffarabad Badar Munir said: “Late at night one elderly person, related to an affected doctor, collapsed soon after being shifted to the Covid-19 Hospital Muzaffarabad on Wednesday. The family of the deceased, settled somewhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was being contacted in connection with his burial. There was only one Covid-19 patient in Muzaffarabad until May 1 but the number has swelled since then. As of today, the number of infected persons based in Muzaffarabad alone stands at about 235. Six of them could not survive, over a 100 recovered while the rest are either under treatment or being removed to different hospitals of the city. The prevailing situation and the unexpected spike in the number of Covid-19 patients in Muzaffarabad has necessitated reversion to complete lockdown.”

He added that the decision was taken in a joint meeting of the administration and police. “The lockdown will focus on the capital city and its adjoining areas, from where maximum positive cases surfaced over the past five weeks. Medical stores and other shops selling essential commodities would be allowed to open as per SOPs. However, public transport will remain suspended and health department teams will conduct random sampling,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2020