LAHORE: As the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department detected over 1,600 fresh confirmed Covid-19 cases from across Punjab for the first time since June 2020, the Punjab government on Sunday imposed a complete lockdown for two weeks in seven high-burdened cities, restricting the movement of people to their homes, while all commercial activities, establishments, markets and areas shall be closed by 6pm throughout the province.
According to the daily Covid-19 situation report, as many as 1,653 new infections and 22 deaths were reported in Punjab during the last 24 hours, marking the fifth straight day Punjab recorded more than 1,000 cases. During the same period, nearly 774 were recovered while 16,070 tests were conducted.
The last time the province reported such a high number of cases was during the first wave on June 24, 2020 when it confirmed 1,655 infections. The province's infection tally now stands at 185,468. The majority of cases – 973 – were reported in Lahore, followed by 81 in Gujranwala, 76 in Sialkot, and 73 in Rawalpindi, according to the health department.
The government said the major lockdown will start from today for two weeks in the seven cities after a gap of a year. While issuing a notification on Saturday, the primary and secondary healthcare department said a major lockdown had been imposed in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala and Gujrat, restricting the movement of the people within these districts and outside them. About the restrictions, the notification said that all kinds of gatherings for social, religious, or other purposes at any place, public or private place including marriage and banquet halls, community centers and marquees shall remain closed for two weeks.
Similarly, a complete ban will continue on all kinds of indoor and outdoor gatherings with upper limit of 50 people. Only takeaway and home delivery will be allowed. All the commercial activities, establishments, markets and areas in Punjab shall be closed by 6pm while all the public, private offices shall follow 50 percent work from home policy.
Regarding the marriage ceremonies, the government said the upper limit for outdoor gatherings is 300 people for the maximum duration of two hours. “All kinds of sports, cultural and other activities and events shall remain banned throughout the province,” reads the notification.
Earlier this month, schools in seven cities including Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Lahore, Gujrat, Multan, Rawalpindi and Sialkot were closed till March 28 amid surge in the virus.
Officials said that one of the major reasons for the sharp surge of the cases was the presence of a highly infectious UK variant of the virus. According to the data generated by the next-generation sequencing (NGS) system, which has been imported from China, the United Kingdom’s highly infectious variant is present in Lahore, Jhelum, Okara, and Gujrat.
They said that the cluster-based surveillance of samples from different pockets of Punjab including the four cities showed that about 70 per cent spike which correlates to the already-reported UK variant strain. Nearly 70 percent of the total cases reported in Punjab since April 2020 were of the infection originating in Wuhan, China, they added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021