Capital admin hopes positivity rate will fall in a week.

ISLAMABAD -- With the capital reporting 136 positive cases on Sunday, the district administration is hoping the positivity rate will fall further by up to 1pc in a week.

As many as 137 people were infected on Saturday and 123 on Friday.

The maximum positivity ratio recorded in November was 10pc, however, the weekly data of that month showed it to be 7pc. The rate is measured on the basis of positive cases out of 100 samples.

District Health Officer Dr Zaeem Zia told Dawn that the current positivity ratio stood at 3.4pc and it was hoped that the rate would drop further by another 0.5pc to 1pc in a week.

The national positivity ratio, on the other hand, mostly remains between 6pc to 7pc. Islamabad's mortality rate is around 1pc whereas it is 2pc at the national level.

'On Sunday, we got confirmation of 136 cases from around 3,600 samples collected on Saturday. Not a single patient has died in a day which is a good sign,' Dr Zia said.

He said the district administration had been strictly following the trace, test and quarantine (TTQ) policy under which whenever a patient was found positive, all his contacts were tested.

Current ratio stands at 3.4pc; Pindi sees drop in cases

'Due to this policy we managed to stop the virus from rapidly multiplying,' the health official said.

The approval of the TTQ policy was given during the tenure of former special assistant to the prime minister, Dr Zafar Mirza, in April during a meeting of the National Coordination Committee on Covid-19.

After the meeting, Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar had said it was a new policy under which provincial governments, with the support of district administrations, would locate contacts of confirmed patients and test them. He had said though this would increase the number of tests, it would be helpful in breaking the chain of the virus.

Rawalpindi

The number of people contracting the virus reduced further in the garrison city as 24 people tested positive on Sunday with no casualty being reported.

At present, the district has 964 active patients with 245 in hospitals and the remaining home isolated. As many as 14 patients are critical in hospitals while 89 are on oxygen.

The positivity rate in Rawalpindi district has been recorded at 6pc, having...