RAWALPINDI: Four people died of Covid-19 and 30 tested positive on Monday as 231 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovering.

Dr Javed Akhtar Kiani, 57, a resident of Islampura Gujar Khan, was brought to Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) on Dec 25 where he died on Sunday night.

Fida Hussain, 66, a resident of Choha Road, Kallar Syedan, was under treatment at RIU since Dec 21 but breathed his last on Monday.

Mastaj Begum, 64, from Iqbal Town, Farooq-i-Azam Road, was being treated at Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) since Dec 21 but could not survive and died on Monday.

Walayat Jan, 75, a resident of Quaid-i-Azam Colony, Dhamial, died at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) late Sunday night. The district has 769 active patients with 108 in hospitals and 661 home isolated. A total of nine patients are on ventilators while 50 on oxygen.

Since March, 12,713 people contracted the virus in Rawalpindi district, 11,415 patients recovered and 529 died.

Meanwhile, the district administration lifted restrictions from nine areas that had been under lockdown.

Commissioner retired Capt Mohammad Mehmood told Dawn that the recovery rate had increased as 231 people were declared Covid-19 free in Rawalpindi, 81 in Attock, 10 in Jhelum and one in Chakwal.

He said most of the patients who were isolated in their homes recovered fast as they did not have any complications.

He said 15,178 people were infected since March, including 1,018 in Attock, 976 in Jhelum and 471 in Chakwal, adding that 13,555 patients were discharged from hospitals in the four districts. He said 632 people have died in Rawalpindi Division, including 26 in Attock, 17 in Jhelum and 60 in Chakwal.

Meanwhile, a slight increase was seen in the number of Covid-19 cases in the capital on Monday.

According to officials of the capital administration, 155 people tested positive compared to 136 the previous day.

The number of confirmed cases has reached 37,272 with over 4,500 active cases.

As per details collected till Sunday, 117 patients were admitted to 15 hospitals, the officials said, adding that 13 were on ventilators, 102 on oxygen and two patients were stable.

The rest of the patients were home isolated, the officials added.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2020