Over 1.6m people vaccinated so far: 82 more deaths, 1,995 new cases reported in Punjab

LAHORE: The novel coronavirus continued to play wreak, as Punjab reported 82 more deaths including 37 each in Lahore, 14 in Faisalabad and 08 in Multan during the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 8,891.

Most of the fatalities were reported from Lahore (37), Multan (08), Gujranwala (03), Rawalpindi (07), Faisalabad (14) and D G Khan (02) taking the death toll in these cities to 3649, 640, 327, 1362, 913 and 82, respectively.

Out of 17599 corona tests conducted during the last 24 hours, as many as 1995 fresh virus cases were reported across the province taking the provincial tally of cases to 314,517. The overall positivity rate of the virus in the province reached to 11.33% from previous 11.37%.

The provincial metropolis is still facing burden of virus positive cases, as 996 fresh cases and 37 deaths were reported during the last 24 hours. In the public sector hospitals of Lahore, the isolation wards as well as HDUs are heavily occupied by the corona patients.

With the recovery of 2092 more virus patients, the number of recovered patients in the province reached to 264,647. On the other hand, as many as 4,631 coronavirus recoveries were reported across the country taking the tally of total recoveries to 747,755 showing the recovery rate of 88 percent.

As per break-up of corona cases and deaths in major cities of the province, Lahore has so far reported 165305 cases and 3649 deaths, Rawalpindi 24091 cases and 1362 deaths, Faisalabad 19333 cases and 927 deaths, Multan 15351 cases and 640 deaths, Bahawalpur 7021 cases and 216 deaths, Gujranwala 7693 cases and 330 deaths, Rahim Yar Khan 5010 cases and 186 deaths, Sargodha 7359 cases and 223 deaths, D G Khan 3061 cases and 84 deaths and Sialkot reported 6727 cases and 216 deaths.

On the other hand, vaccination of elderly patients is underway at designated corona vaccine centres. The government is vaccinating the people at a faster pace and so far over 1.6 million people have been vaccinated in the province.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said in a briefing that the government is enhancing the number of vaccination centres in Punjab. She said the decision of imposing lockdown from 8th May is in the best interest of people, as the next 20 days will be critical to corona control efforts.

On the other hand, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has successfully completed the first phase of its Covid-19 vaccination drive in collaboration with Pakistan government’s National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

During this phase, Pakistan’s leading cricketers across all three formats and support staff were vaccinated. The PCB takes pride in being one of the first cricket boards in the world to provide a robust vaccination programme to ensure the health and safety of its players and support staff in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

In the first phase, 57 men players, 13 officials of the men’s team and 13 NHPC men and women coaches were vaccinated. A number of franchise players and support staff besides PCB match officials involved in the February-March phase of the HBL Pakistan Super League (three match referees, three umpires) were also vaccinated, a PCB spokesman said.

PCB Chief Operating Officer Salman Naseer said, “The PCB has a duty of care towards its cricketers, especially in the ongoing pandemic, and keeping that in mind we requested the NCOC for vaccines during the HBL Pakistan Super League 6. The vaccination drive started in Karachi and our first priority was to get the players and support staff involved in the tournament vaccinated. The PCB is fully behind the government’s vaccination drive and once again urges people across Pakistan to get vaccinated in order to ensure the health and safety of their own selves and their families.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021