LAHORE: With 62 new deaths due to novel coronavirus across the province during the last 24 hours, Punjab has become the first province to cross 1,000 deaths taking the provincial tally to 1,031.
With spike in corona positive cases in Lahore, the provincial government has decided to start complete lockdown for 15 days from midnight Tuesday (today) in the areas of Shahdara, Nishtar Town, Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore Cantt, Walled City, Mozang, Shadbagh, Harbanspura and Gulberg. Lahore is the worst affected province and has reported over 27,000 cases. Lahore is the second worst affected city after Karachi. The Punjab health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid accompanied by CEO Mayo hospital Prof Dr Asad Aslam, Commissioner Lahore and CCPO Lahore told media here Monday that more than 300 cases were recorded in each of these areas, therefore, it has been decided to enforce a complete lockdown in these areas. In these areas, she said pharmacies, tandoors and dairy shops will remain open apart from factories that are making protective equipment. "These areas will be locked down for at least two weeks and then we will observe the results and make further decisions," she said.
As per national database for coronavirus, Punjab has reported another 1,537 cases in the last 24 hours taking the provincial tally to 53,721. The database shows that another 1,986 people have recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours talking the number of recoveries in the country to 53,712. Dr Yasmin Rashid announced that the government has devised different strategy in those areas of Lahore where more cases are being reported. However, despite government's instructions, people are not observing on Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs), she said.
She said those saying that the government has failed are wrong. She appreciated the performance of all the provincial governments including, Sindh, Balochistan, KPK, AJK, Gilgit Baltistan and AJK for checking the spread of coronavirus. "If our government has failed, so has every other government in the world," she said, adding: "Pakistan which is the 5th most populous country is being compared with New Zealand and Taiwan. The population of New Zealand is half of that of Lahore's. Controlling the virus there is much easier than controlling it in a thickly populated country like ours."
She added: "We are better, if compared with neighboring country (India), the overall mortality rate here is 1.8-percent."
She further said the people should understand that this is a viral infection. Even in China, where they followed strict measures with commendable discipline, there is a resurgence of cases.
To a query, the minister said that in case of emergency, residents can call at the helpline numbers given by the government. For ambulance services, residents can call 1122. For other emergency services, they can call 04299211136-37-38. She added that the people believe that ventilators are the only resort for a coronavirus patient and debunked the misconception. She assured that the government was ensuring provision of ventilators and ICU beds at all hospitals in the city. At present, over 300 ventilators are available in both public and private sector hospitals, he said.
Comments
Comments are closed.