ISLAMABAD-As the federal capital observed a sharp decline in the number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, the health official said that the recent drop in cases is due to lesser involvement of people in testing.
The federal capital on Tuesday observed a sharp decline in the number of positive novel coronavirus cases (COVID-19). However, the death rate again surged to three people in a day. Director General (DG) Health Services, Municipal Corporation Islamabad (MCI) Dr. Hassan Orooj talking to The Nation said that multiple factors are behind the drop of cases including less involvement of people.
He said that though people have also become careful and lockdowns also worked, however, now they do not rush for testing as it was observed earlier.
Dr. Hassan Orooj said that the number of COVID-19 cases have dropped due to low number of testing. He said that earlier people were proactive in going for the test, however, now the number has reduced. “Earlier people were rushing to city hospitals but now the trend has changed,” he said. Dr. Hassan said that one of the reasons behind low number of testing is the ‘fear’ amongst them for which they avoid going for COVID-19 test.
He said that earlier the authority initiated a campaign in slum areas, and it faced difficulties in executing it. The DGHS said that people need to follow SOPs and take preventive measures during Eid-ul-Azha as the chances are cases would increase during the event if people avoided social distancing. Dr. Hasaan Orooj also said that another factor for low cases is the lockdown in areas which resulted in containing the virus. He also said that in federal capital mostly patients are being reported from G and I sector series. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, 63 COVID-19 cases were recorded in the previous 24 hours. Meanwhile, the death rate has again increased to three persons per day from one person average.
According to the NCOC, the number of cases started declining in the city since the end of the previous month and the figure is dropping gradually.
Official figures said that the total active number of COVID-19 cases in the city is 13577, while 140 deaths have been recorded and 9403 patients have recovered from the infection as well.
The average number of deaths in the city in the previous three days remained three, however, it dropped to one last week, said the official data.
Meanwhile, the active number of cases in the federal city in the last three days remained 97, 113 and 85, respectively. The lowest figure was 63 recorded in the previous 24 hours. The drop of cases below 100 was recorded after the month of May.