ISLAMABAD - Above 60 per cent beds and 50 per cent ventilators allocated for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients in the federal capital hospitals are occupied by infected patients, according to Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) COVID-19 situation report.
The report said that 807 beds and 112 ventilators have been allocated in 15 public and private sector hospitals of the city. However, till 15 April, 508 beds and 56 ventilators were occupied with the COVID-19 patients.
The report said that with 62 per cent occupation ratio of beds, 299 are still vacant, while 56 COVID-19 ventilators are also unoccupied.
According to the COVID-19 situation report the COVID-19 positivity ratio in the federal capital has surged to 9.3 per cent.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 patients in ICT is 68066 since the surge of the virus and the number of those who recovered is 56222.
The report said that 278 patients are admitted in the hospital, 686 died while active number of cases in ICT is 12218.
The health facilities having COVID-19 facilities include IHITC, PIMS, FG Polyclinic, Federal General Hospital, CDA, Kulsoom International Hospital, AMC, Shifa Hospital, ANTH, Al-Maroof and Social Security hospital.
Earlier, the District Health Officer (DHO) Zaeem Zia had asked the ICT administration to closely monitor few sectors of the city from where larger number of the COVID-19 cases were being reported.
The sectors included G-6/1, G-6/2, G-7/2, G-8/1, G-10/4 and G-11/3. The DHO in the letter said that these sectors affected by COVID-19 should be closely monitored and traffic in these sectors should be restricted and SOPs should be strictly enforced.
Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar in a media talk held at National Press Club said that government learned a month ago that COVID-19 was spreading rapidly, and it was suspected that it was the UK variant.
He said that the National Institute of Health (NIH) found that a large number of infection cases had arrived from the UK and after that many efforts were made to make the people aware.
He said that the administration also tried hard but it was not possible to control the spread. Minister Asad Umar added that Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad have the highest number of COVID-19 patients.
He further said that government is taking steps and has made significant measures in last 10 days to prevent the pandemic.
He said that last 10 days of Ramzan will be difficult and as the pandemic will spread more and should be more careful in those days everywhere including mosques.
About vaccines, Asad Umer said that they are being developed in Europe and the United States, but not being provided to other countries.
He said that burden on China regarding provision of vaccine is increasing as other countries are also demanding it from China now.
He said that so far 1.3 million people in Pakistan have been vaccinated and there are 900,000 vaccines available in the country while bout 60,000 to 70,000 people are vaccinated daily.
Asad Umar said that strict measures have now been taken to prevent the COVID-19 and the virus can be controlled with strict implementation on COVID-19 for two weeks.