LAHORE: The overall positivity rate of coronavirus in the province has further declined to 2.92%, as out of 25,245 Covid-19 tests conducted during the last 24 hours, as many as 738 fresh virus cases and 36 fatalities were reported across Punjab taking the provincial tally of cases to 336,315 and death toll to 9875.
With the recovery of 1879 more virus patients, the number of recovered patients in the province has reached to 304,752. On the other hand, as many as 4,686 coronavirus recoveries were reported across the country taking the tally to 827,843 showing recovery rate of 91.01%.
Out of 738 Corona positive cases reported across the province of Punjab during the last 24 hours, 650 are stable while 83 are stated to be critical. There is declining trend of positive cases in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi. During the last 24 hours, Lahore has reported 251 cases and 14 deaths while two deaths were reported in Rawalpindi, six in Faisalabad, two in Gujranwala.
As per break-up of corona cases and deaths in major cities of the province, Lahore has so far reported 174515 cases and 4034 deaths, Rawalpindi 25483 cases and 1445 deaths, Faisalabad 20884 cases and 1046 deaths, Multan 17109 cases and 739 deaths, Muzaffargarh 2129 cases and 217 deaths, Bahawalpur 7930 cases and 231 deaths, Gujranwala 8124 cases and 386 deaths, Okara 2979 cases and 34 deaths, Mianwali 1677 cases and 118 deaths, Sargodha 8170 cases and 250 deaths, Sahiwal 3202 cases and 87 deaths, D G Khan 3369 cases and 101 deaths and Sialkot reported 6917 cases and 224 deaths.
With improvement in Coronavirus situation, the Punjab Higher Education Department has finalized the schedule of matriculation and intermediate examinations. As per schedule, the examinations of class 12 in all boards of the province will start from June 26 while matriculation exams are scheduled in July. Final schedule will be released in next few days.
On the other hand, vaccination of the people is going on at full pace at vaccination centres across the province. The people are thronging in a large number at these centres for getting first and second dose of vaccine. There are complaints about non-updated data at the system installed at these centres. Despite directions of the government, vaccination cards are not being issued to those who received their first dose.
Afshan Naz, who got her first vaccine dose at Mozang Hospital, told this scribe that she was neither apprised about the vaccine nor any card was issued after being vaccinated.
Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid in a briefing said that availability of accurate data is imperative to control the corona epidemic. She directed that online data entry be ensured at all the newly-established vaccination centers. She said that round-the-clock work is being done in three shifts at the Expo vaccination centre and the number of staff would be increased in the shift facing a rush of people.
Moreover, Principal PGMI Prof Dr Sardar Muhammad Al-freed Zafar while receiving a donation of one thousand Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits from Muhammad Anas, CEO of a private company, said that during corona epidemic apart from government the cooperation of philanthropists is praiseworthy which shows that our nation has much spirit of sharing grief of others.
He said that we are witnessing a significant reduction in the rate of corona cases. He urged the citizens to safeguard their lives and the lives of others by getting vaccinated.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021