ISLAMABAD: The capital administration on Tuesday imposed a ban on indoor dining in restaurants and hotels in view of the rising cases of Covid-19.

The city recorded six more deaths and 283 positive cases in the last 24 hours.

Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Hamza Shafqaat said the order was issued in pursuant to decisions of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) and under the Epidemic Diseases Act.

Restaurants and hotels will, however, be allowed to serve food and takeaway in open areas. The deputy commissioner said all assistant commissioners and subdivisional magistrates would remain in the field to ensure the ban is implemented. The order on working hours will not apply on hotels and restaurants, he added.

Meanwhile, the number of hospitals treating virus-affected people has been increased from 12 to 13 in the city. Officials said in response to a request from the capital administration, the number of beds in these hospitals was increased from 490 to 506.

Twin cities report 10 deaths, 410 new Covid-19 cases

Utilisation of hospital beds (506) is 66.4pc with 336 beds being occupied. As many as 45 patients were on ventilators. There are 71 ventilators allocated for coronavirus patients and their utilisation rate is 63pc. A decrease was seen in the number of positive cases and positivity rate.

According to district administration officials, 5,149 tests were conducted on Monday out of which 341 tested positive whereas on Tuesday, 6,553 tests were carried out with 283 testing positive.

The positivity rate on Monday was 6.62pc and 4.31pc on Tuesday. The four patients who passed away were admitted to different hospitals.

Rawalpindi

Four patients died in the garrison city and 127 people tested positive on Tuesday. As many as 179 patients were discharged from hospitals.

Sheikh Ismail, 62, a resident of Block-A Satellite Town, was admitted to Hearts International on Nov 30 where he died on Monday night.

Mohammad Ibrahim, 70, a resident of Satellite Town, was taken to the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) on Nov 30 but he passed away on Tuesday morning.

Tahira Tariq, 68, a resident of Mohallah Peer Chua, died at the RIU on Tuesday morning where she was admitted on Nov 30.

Nuzhat Khaleel, 60, was admitted to Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) on Nov 30 where she breathed her last on Monday night. She was a resident of Bahria Town Phase-8.

Officials said 1,306 patients were under treatment in the district - 30 at Holy Family Hospital, four at Hearts International, two at Begum Akhtar Memorial Hospital, two at Red Crescent Hospital, 46 at RIU and 18 at BBH.

Among them, 108 patients belonged to the district and 70 are from other districts.

Moreover, 538 patients are waiting for their results of coronavirus serology and 1,128 patients isolated in their homes.

10 police officials infected

As many as 10 police officials in Rawalpindi have also contracted Covid-19. One of them has been hospitalised and the others have been quarantined at their homes.

During the second wave of the pandemic, 11 police officials have contracted the virus, and one of them died on Sunday.

According to a police spokesman, CPO Mohammad Ahsan Younas had instructed the force to strictly implement the SOPs but despite the precautionary measures the virus has started infecting the personnel.

The infected officials included those on duty at the CPO office, Elite Force, Muhafiz Force, Security Division, High Court and Rawat police station.

The spokesman said Inspector Mushtaq Shah, the in-charge of the CPO office complaint cell, was in a critical condition and shifted to a hospital.

Taxila

Despite a smart lockdown imposed by the local administration on the directive of the health department, 43 positive cases were reported in Taxila on Tuesday, raising the tally in the tehsil to 778.

Five of the new cases were from the same family belonging to a rural area of Taxila while 32 belonged to the urban area of Wah Cantonment.

The number of active patients on Tuesday stood at 143 and all were under home isolation.

Attock

As many as 17 more people tested positive in Attock, raising the tally in the district to 798 patients.

District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Jawad Elahi said eight of the new cases belonged to Fatehjang and nine to Pindigheb. He said it was the highest single-day tally from these two towns during the second spell of Covid-19.

In the Attock city, which remained a hotspot during the first as well as second spell, no positive case was reported on Tuesday. He said the number of active patients in the district increased to 83 and 75 of them are home isolated and eight hospitalised.

He said four suspected patients were also admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital.

Jhelum

In the district of Jhelum, 17 people tested positive on Tuesday.

District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Waseem Iqbal said so far 35,704 people have been screened and 711 of them tested positive while 593 patients have recovered and 10 passed away.

He said there were 105 active cases in the district and 16 patients were under treatment in hospitals and others isolated at their homes. — Additional reporting by Amjad Iqbal and Hamid Asghar

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2020