Relaxing lockdown, SOPs' violation led to increase in Covid-19 cases: health official.

Byline: Ikram Junaidi

ISLAMABAD -- Violations of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the novel coronavirus before and during Eid holidays have changed the trend of cases in the federal capital.

Due to the increasing cases, the total number of patients in the capital has surpassed the figure of 8,000 and two sub-sectors of G-9 have been sealed.

Moreover, some more areas may be locked down in coming days as they also meet the requirements of declaring them hotspots.

However, the district administration also believes that the huge number of tests i.e. 80,000 conducted in the capital is also one of the reasons for the increased number of cases.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS), requesting not to be quoted, said relaxing the lockdown before Eid was a major blunder due to which the trend of cases changed.

Says people visited hometowns for Eid and returned as virus carriers

'We were getting around 50 cases per day in the federal capital such as 44 cases on May 14, 55 on May 15, 26 on May 16, 50 on May 17 and 37 cases on May 18. However, the effects of relaxing the lockdown gradually became visible as cases started increasing a week after that step and jumped to 100 per day. For the last a few days, over 400 cases per day are being reported.'

He said during the Eid holidays people went to different cities and returned after spending holidays in their native cities as carriers of the virus.

'The number of cases reported in the four months is equal to cases reported in the last three weeks. The trends show that the situation will aggravate in coming days and we may have to seal some more areas. In G-9, per day cases were increasing and now we are getting same trends in I-10, G-10 and I-8,' he said.

However, focal person for Covid-19 in Islamabad and District Health...