LAHORE: The novel coronavirus continued to play havoc, as 79 more deaths were reported across the province including 24 in Lahore in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 7,141.
Out of 22,781 Covid-19 tests conducted during the last 24 hours, as many as 2,775 fresh virus cases were reported across the province with positivity rate of 12.18 taking the provincial tally of cases to 255,571. With the recovery of 1694 more virus patients, the number of recovered patients in the province has reached to 207,606. In Lahore, 1,436 fresh Covid-19 cases and 24 deaths were reported during the last 24 hours. Out of 250 ventilators allocated in Lahore public sector hospitals, about 200 are occupied and 50 ventilators are vacant.
The president of the Lahore Body building Association and former Mr Pakistan and Mr Junior (Asia) Mujahid Ali breathed his last due to Covid-19 here on Wednesday. Mujahid Ali was tested Covid-19 positive and hospitalized for the last few days where he passed away. The late earned Mr Pakistan title in 1992 and Mr Junior Asia title in 1996.
As per break up of corona cases and deaths in major cities of the province, Lahore has so far reported 135,888 cases and 2,942 deaths, Rawalpindi 21,184 cases and 1146 deaths, Faisalabad 15469 cases and 707 deaths, Multan 12042 cases and 447 deaths, Bahawalpur 5,576 cases and 182 deaths, Gujranwala 6,755 cases and 233 deaths, Gujrat 6,268 cases and 99 deaths, Rahim Yar Khan 3,599 cases and 157 deaths, Sargodha 5,140 cases and 182 deaths, D G Khan 2,602 cases and 70 deaths, Sheikhupura 2,598 cases and 71 deaths and Sialkot reported 5,961 cases and 202 deaths.
As per statistics of health department, there are 648 ventilators for corona patients in all hospitals of the province out of which about 350 ventilators are under use while 298 are unoccupied.
Moreover, experts in a webinar “For a healthier world,” jointly organized by Bayer and the Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN) Pakistan declared health and nutrition the biggest challenges of Pakistan due to rapid increase in population.
Dr Imran Ahmad Khan, CEO and MD Bayer Pakistan said that Pakistan is facing multiple challenges like food security, healthcare capacity and lack of proper education. These problems are interrelated and we must address them all to ensure a health and respectable life for our citizens, he said.
He said Bayer has adopted an integrated approach to address this issue faced not only by Pakistan but other developing countries. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic more than 21 million people were facing acute food security besides distribution problems we have not been able to increase our food crops production in line with ever increasing population, he said, adding: “In another 20 years we will add another 100 million in our population. The food production must be increased from the same land and on same or little less water.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021