LAHORE: There is no let up in the spread of coronavirus, as out of 35,257 Covid-19 tests conducted during the last 24 hours across Punjab, as many as 2732 fresh virus cases and 62 more fatalities were reported in the province taking the provincial tally of cases to 261,173 and death toll to 7271.
While conducting more corona tests, the positivity rate of the virus has reached to 7.74% from previous 7.59%. With the recovery of 2105 more virus patients, the number of recovered patients in the province has reached to 211865. On the other hand, as many as 4,123 coronavirus recoveries were reported across the country during the last 24 hours taking the tally of total recoveries to 650,775 with recovery rate of 87.3 percent
In Lahore, 1402 fresh Covid-19 cases and 26 deaths were reported during the last 24 hours. Out of 250 ventilators allocated in Lahore public sector hospitals, around 200 are occupied while remaining ventilators are still vacant, sources said, adding: “The health authorities had arranged 649 ventilators for corona patients in all hospitals of the provincial government, of which about 330 ventilators are under use while 319 are unoccupied.”
As per break-up of corona cases and deaths in major cities of the province, Lahore has so far reported 139016 cases and 2996 deaths, Rawalpindi 21441 cases and 1166 deaths, Faisalabad 15825 cases and 723 deaths, Multan 12196 cases and 447 deaths, Bahawalpur 5706 cases and 184 deaths, Gujranwala 6853 cases and 243 deaths, Gujrat 6311 cases and 100 deaths, Rahim Yar Khan 3737 cases and 158 deaths, Sargodha 5370 cases and 184 deaths, Sheikhupura 2656 cases and 74 deaths and Sialkot reported 6053 cases and 203 deaths.
Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has directed the administrative machinery to ensure that wearing of the masks and social distancing are strictly adhered to in Ramazan bazaars.
He maintained that restriction of masks and social distance should be ensured in markets while legal action should be taken over violation of corona SOPs.
Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid in a briefing said, “The government is taking all-out measures to control the Pandemic and capacity of public sector hospitals is being steadily increased. The registration process of people between 50 to 60 years of age is underway. We have set a target of vaccination of 20,000 citizens per day.”
Moreover, during the holy month of Ramazan, citizens are being vaccinated in two shifts at the vaccination centres across Punjab. The first shift works between 10:00 am to 4: 00 pm and the second shift operates between 9:00 pm to 1:00 am in morning.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021