LAHORE: While there is no let up in the spread of coronavirus, the overall positivity rate of virus in the province of Punjab reached to 5.67% while the health professionals fear spike in Covid-19 cases in coming days. Out of 40430 tests conducted during the last 48 hours, 2293 fresh infections and 45 fatalities were reported in the province taking the tally of cases to 377,209 and death toll to 11479.

Expressing concern over current coronavirus situation, health professionals have called for strict enforcement of Corona SOPs in the districts of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Faisalabad saying all variants of coronavirus including Indian Delta variant have been found in the current samples of Covid-19 patients. They feared that situation may worsen, if stringent measures are not adopted.

According to them, Delta variant has far much faster transmission rate as compared to other variants and Punjab is mostly reporting fast increase in cases of this variant. With the recovery of 1520 more coronavirus positive patients during the last 48 hours, the total number of recovered patients in Punjab reached to 342,932. On the other hand, as many as 3027 coronavirus recoveries were reported across the country during the last 24 hours taking the tally of recoveries to 1002430 showing recovery rate of 89.8%.

As per break-up of coronavirus cases and deaths in major cities of the province, Lahore has so far reported 193186 cases and 4564 deaths, Rawalpindi 31885 cases and 1752 deaths, Faisalabad 22848 cases and 1191 deaths, Multan 19064 cases and 879 deaths, Gujranwala 8922 cases and 459 deaths, Rahim Yar Khan 6800 cases and 283 deaths, Sargodha 8922 cases and 296 deaths, Sheikhupura 4119 cases and 127 deaths, Muzaffargarh 2479 cases and 313 deaths and Sialkot reported 7743 cases and 241 deaths.

On the other hand, the Punjab Emergency Service Department (PESD) has provided emergency cover to 61456 mourners while providing emergency cover to 1279 events in Punjab during Ashura-e-Muharram. Out of the total, 60470 mourners who sustained injuries owing flagellate were provided dressings and appropriate first aid while 983 having severe injuries and deep cuts were shifted to hospitals for advanced medical care.

DG Emergency Services Punjab said in a meeting that Rescuers are working on missionary zeal to save human lives and reduce the suffering of victims of emergencies.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021