Recovery rate improving in capital, say health experts

Islamabad: Leading health experts in Islamabad Sunday expressed their pride and gratitude for the cooperation of Public for following measures of safety amid COVID-19.They said that the daily number of cases has significantly declined in the capital as compared to previous weeks due to smart lockdown strategy.

Talking to media, Executive director (ED) of Polyclinic Islamabad called on people to continue cooperate with the health authorities and comply with all precautionary measures to ensure safety during the coronavirus pandemic.

She confirmed that the patient burden in her hospital had reduced due to effective coverage of media, cooperation of people and efforts of government health ministry.

She said that the federal government was pursuing a holistic strategy to combat the coronavirus with the support of doctors and NDMA.

Ministry of Health Services and media had launched different awareness drives on coronavirus and now people are well aware to wear masks, washing hands and use of sensitizers which is is good gesture of public, she said.

The number of people treated in hospital for coronavirus and the number of people in intensive care units continued to decline, she added.

She said people had adopted positivity towards adopting safety measures and the panic situation was now over as mostly people prefer to treat themselves at home instead of rushing to hospitals.

She said the coronavirus situation is far better than other countries as our government has made the best sovereign decisions in the best interest of our people with robust national coordination and decision-making mechanism in the national interest.

Naila Israr said the government has gradually eased lockdown, but at the same time it has focused on the enforcement of COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures.

Director General Health Dr Hassan Urooj also said that "We are seeing a decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases and related deaths due to effective policy of smart lockdown and better cooperation of public".

“A steady decline can be seen in the case fatality rate in the country. The relatively low death rate is attributed to the continued focus on surveillance, timely case identification and clinical management of the cases,” he said.

He said the reason behind low number of deaths in Pakistan as compared to other countries was due to the immediate measures taken by the government to control the outbreak under the supervision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“I want to request all of nation to continue follow the SOPs we have outlined to prevent the spread of this virus. If we don’t take precautions then we will continue to suffer,” he warned.

To a question, he said the people would have to remain careful on their own against COVID-19.