ISLAMABAD: The COVID-19 cases continued to surge in the federal capital as 549 new corona cases were reported from the city during the last 24 hours, National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Thursday.

According to an official of NCOC, as many as 375 cases were reported on Wednesday while 530 cases were reported on Tuesday.

He said so far 71,533 cases were reported from the federal capital and 649 deaths were reported from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) while 57,979 patients had been recovered completely.

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

They also started taking action on a violation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) related to the coronavirus while visiting marriage halls, markets, and petrol pumps by its inspection teams. The administration has been asked to seal shops, workshops and restaurants on violation of SOPs.

The inspection teams have been directed to impose fines on owners of different shops in case of SOPs violation.

Commenting on the situation, an official of the 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 masks and other precautionary measures to stop increasing local transmission of COVID-19 in the city.

He said the government had adopted an effective strategy to combat COVID-19 that resulted in a reduction in corona cases in the country. He said a strategy was made to control corona keeping in view the global information, focusing on data with integration of local data in a scientific way.