LAHORE: Out of 17,755 Covid-19 tests conducted during the last 24 hours, as many as 2021 fresh virus cases and 16 fatalities were reported across the province with positivity rate of 11.38 taking the provincial tally of cases to 250,459 and death toll to 6988.
With the recovery of 1592 more virus patients, the number of recovered patients in the province has reached to 203960.
In Lahore, 1206 fresh Covid-19 cases and 04 deaths were reported during the last 24 hours. However, there is burden of patients in both public and private sector hospitals in the provincial metropolis.
As per break-up of corona cases and deaths in major cities of the province, Lahore has so far reported 133205 cases and 2880 deaths, Rawalpindi 20576 cases and 1112 deaths, Faisalabad 15184 cases and 687 deaths, Multan 11868 cases and 445 deaths, Bahawalpur 5519 cases and 178 deaths, Gujranwala 6663 cases and 225 deaths, Gujrat 6214 cases and 99 deaths, Rahim Yar Khan 3513 cases and 155 deaths, Sargodha 4935 cases and 178 deaths and Sialkot reported 5859 cases and 199 deaths. The Vice-Chancellor University of Health Sciences (UHS) Professor Javed Akram, while addressing a meeting organized by the Pak One Health Alliance (POHA) here at the UHS on Monday, said that a new ‘One Health’ department will be set up at the university where human, zoological and botanical specialists will work together to address the threat of epidemiological and infectious diseases.
He said that with the collaboration of China, Pakistan would soon start production of the coronavirus vaccine. “We are working on several research projects related to vaccine and Vitamin D”, he said, adding: “A plan was being chalked out to create a free vaccine bank for the poor.” Prof Javed Akram said that human health was closely linked to the health of the surrounding wildlife and the environment. He said that most of the infectious diseases came from animals to humans. A recent example was the coronavirus, which spread to humans from bats in China. In future, more germs and microbes would kill people than missiles, he feared.
Dr Shagufta Zareen said that ‘One Health’ was part of the ten-year Punjab Health Sector Strategy. She said the country was facing an annual burden of Rs365 billion due to environmental degradation which was 6 percent of the GDP. “We are in touch with international experts who could help launch research projects at UHS,” she added.
On the other hand, the Punjab Institute of Neurosciences (PINs) has set up a Plasma Pharesis Unit in the Department of Neurology where this facility will be provided free of cost to the patients.
Executive Director PINS Prof Dr Khalid Mehmood said on the occasion that practical steps have been taken for the convenience of patients in this Institution and 1000 Pharesis kits were purchased at a cost of Rs13 million. He said that plasma plays a vital role in the treatment of patients with Neurological and Brain diseases and in complex diseases of the Neuro and cerebral cortex.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
Comments
Comments are closed.