35 new COVID-19 cases reported in capital: NCOC

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Coronavirus Monday said at least 35 new COVID-19 cases were reported from the federal capital during the last 24 hours.

According to an official of NCOC, as many as 86 cases were reported the other day and so far total 17,331 cases were surfaced from the federal capital.

He said 189 deaths were reported from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) while 16,367 patients had been recovered completely.

Meanwhile, on the direction of Ministry of National Health Services, the district administration of Islamabad had started smart lockdown in different streets of Islamabad to reduce transmission of the infection in selected streets and other sectors of Islamabad.

They also started taking actions on violation of SOPs related with the corona while visiting marriage halls, markets and petrol pumps by its inspection teams.

The administration also sealed two schools, four shops, one workshop and 32 restaurants on violation of SOPs.

The inspection teams also issued notices to 17 marriage halls besides imposing fines on owners of different shops.

Commenting on the situation, an official of Ministry of National Health Services said several local level administrative decisions were made to control the disease.

He advised the citizens to continue following the social distancing, use of mask and other precautionary measures to stop increasing local transmission of COVID-19 in Islamabad.

He said the government had adopted effective strategy to combat COVOD-19 that resulted reduction in corona cases in the country.

He said the main focus of the strategy was to control the disease on one hand and maintaining business activities of small and poor traders on the other hand.

He said all possible measures were adopted to control COVID-19 to avoid further load on already burdened health system of the country.

He said strategies were made to control corona keeping in view the global information, focusing on data with integration of local data in a scientific way.

He said the ministry had also asked the schools administrations of Islamabad Capital Territory to strictly monitor the SOPs to ensure protection of students from COVID-19.

He said all schools had been clearly directed to strictly follow the SOPs announced by the government like social distancing, hand sanitizing or washing, wearing of face mask etcetera.

He asked the parents to regularly observe their school going children and in case of any illness avoid sending them school while teachers should also observe children's health on daily basis.