No relaxation in lockdown in Pindi.

Byline: Aamir Yasin and Munawer Azeem

RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD -- There will be no relaxation in the lockdown in Rawalpindi from Saturday (today) as the district administration asked traders to keep shops and markets closed till further orders as 211 more patients tested positive for Covid-19 in the district on Friday.

As the number of patients continued rising, the district administration also declared Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) as the coronavirus care centre and closed all its outpatient departments (OPDs).

Earlier, confirmed patients were being treated at the Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) and critical patients were shifted to the BBH. Out of the highest ever 211 people new positive patients, 111 were from the Rawalpindi district.

Moreover, three patients died of the disease and only one was discharged from a hospital after recovery.

The health authority officials said most of the new patients were local transmissions. But a senior official of the district administration said people coming from abroad had spread the virus in many areas.

District admin asks traders to keep markets closed after highest single-day spike of Covid-19 cases

A 70-year-old resident of Madni Mohallah in Dhoke Dalal was brought to the BBH on April 29 where he died on Friday.

Another 50-year-old man from Chur Chowk Peshawar Road was admitted to the BBH on May 5 where he also died.

The third casualty was a 64-year-old resident of Khayaban-i-Sir Syed who was admitted to Holy Family Hospital (HFH).

The number of confirmed patients in Rawalpindi reached 920 while 44 people died and 231 patients were discharged after recovery. At present, 665 confirmed patients are under treatment and 171 patients are quarantined in their houses.

Besides, 300 suspected patients were also brought to the three hospitals and their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the BBH laboratory and the results are awaited.

The local administrations also keep 1,490 people on quarantine who had been in close contacts with the confirmed patients, including 1,280 people isolated in their houses.

As many as seven nurses of a hostel at the BBH have been isolated with symptoms of the coronavirus and their samples dispatched to the NIH.

Commissioner retired Capt Mohammad Mehmood told Dawn that the Punjab government had not issued any instruction to ease the lockdown.

He said the numbers of patients of Covid-19 and deaths were increasing and there was a need to allocate...