ISLAMABAD: The federal capital witnessed a drop in the daily Covid-19 positivity ratio on Sunday whereas five people succumbed to the virus in neighbouring Rawalpindi district.

According to documents, available with Dawn, the daily infection rate was recorded at 1.3pc.

In the second week of January, the positivity ratio was 5.3pc with 1,680 cases being reported in a week but it gradually increased and reached 14.2pc in the third week of last month with 6,473 cases recorded in a week. The last week of January was the worst as 9,037 people got infected and the positivity ratio reached 16.4pc.

In the first week of February 4,864 infections (10.2pc positivity) were reported, however, by the third week, positivity ratio fell to 2.5pc, with 665 patients surfacing.

Five deaths reported in Rawalpindi; health official links reduced number of cases to vaccination

Out of the 4,610 tests conducted, results of 62 samples came back positive.

District Health Officer (Islamabad) Dr Zaeem Zia stated on social media: “A great fall! A great sign! Our weekly has fallen down to 2.58% from 16.45% in last 3 weeks. Good job Islamabad. Get vaccinated and get boosted.”

He said things were in control and the situation was getting better with every passing day.

“I believe that it is all because of vaccination as majority of the people have been inoculated in Islamabad. That is why hospitalisations have been reduced and the number of deaths have minimised,” Dr Zia said, adding that “we did contact tracing due to which hot spots were hit by us many times and number of cases were reduced”.

Similarly, under the guidance of the National Command and Operation Centre and district administration, we have established a system due to which people are tested without any difficulty and same is the case for vaccination, he said, adding that, “I am hopeful that the situation will further improve in the federal capital”.

Meanwhile, five patients died of coronavirus in the last 24 hours in Rawalpindi.

The district recorded a positivity ratio of 2.6pc, with 1,341 of the samples out of 1,378 testing negative.

According to data, the deceased were identified as Riffat Jahan, 73, a resident of Mandra, Gujar Khan; Mumtaz Bashir, 82, resident of Milat Colony, Parveen Akhtar, 60, from Kotli Sattian, Rehmatullah, 60, resident of Dhoke Gujran, and Farzand Ali, 103, a resident of Gujar Khan. These patients were admitted to the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU).

There are 545 active patients in the district out of whom 57 were admitted to hospitals and 488 home isolated. Five of the patients arrived from different parts of Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonments, eight from city areas and nine from Potohar Town.

Moreover, eight patients were detected in Gujar Khan, two in Taxila and one patient each in Kotli Sattian and Murree. There are 57 patients admitted to different hospitals of Rawalpindi city out of whom four are in Benazir Bhutto Hospital, three in Holy Family Hospital, 16 in Fauji Foundation Hospital, 32 in the RIU and one patient each at Hearts International Hospital and Begum Akhtar Sultana Memorial Trust Hospital.

Three of the patients are on ventilator, 42 are on oxygen support and 12 are stable.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2022