Rawalpindi                 -          As many as five persons died of COVID-19 in Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) and Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH).

Similarly, some 145 patients including Station House Officer (SHO) Police Station (PS) RattaAmralMirzaShakeel tested positive for novel coronavirus.

PTI Provincial Minister for Informal Education and Literacy and head of Corona Management Centre Raja Rashid Hafeez also tested positive for COVID-19.

According to details, Saima Ahmed, 70 years old, resident of Khyaban-e-Sir Syed, was brought to Rawalpindi Institute of Urology on May 27 morning and she died before afternoon.  They said SajidaBatool, 23 years old, resident of Shaheen Colony, was shifted to Rawalpindi Institute of Urology on May 27 from home and she died late night.

They added KhateejaBibi, 70 years old, resident of Khyaban-e-Tanveer, was brought to Rawalpindi Institute of Urology in critical condition and she died on May 28. Sources said two female patients namely KhadeejaBibi and Taj Jan also died of coronavirus in BBH. The number of confirmed patients in Rawalpindi district reached at 2378 while 89 people died and 934 patients discharged after recovery from Rawalpindi’s four main hospitals. The local administrations also kept 3337 persons in quarantines who had been close contacts of the confirmed patients including 2400 people had been isolated in their houses.   District health authority teams had been deployed to monitor the health of the people isolated in their houses.

Commissioner Rawalpindi Division (Retd) Muhammad Mehmood told media that Punjab government had directed to implement lockdown in the markets and bazaars from Friday to Sunday and all the bazaars will be opened from Monday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

He said that the four districts of Rawalpindi division would complete the report of hotspot areas in their respective districts soon. He said that on the basis of the report, future planning would be made to impose restrictions.