LAHORE: With 1,916 fresh Covid-19 cases, the provincial tally of novel coronavirus has reached to 40,819 across the province of Punjab.
The Punjab has also recorded the highest single-day death toll of any province after 58 more people died from the virus in the last 24 hours. This has taken the province's total fatalities to 773.
Punjab health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid at a news conference along with medical experts, here Tuesday advised the people there is 'no need to panic', as there is enough capacity in the province's hospitals to deal with Covid-19 patients.
She disclosed that 53 percent of HDU, 42 percent of ventilators and 63.2 percent of intensive care unit beds are currently occupied. However, she said that "patients cannot go to whichever hospital they wish since beds might be fully occupied there. This is not a wish programme where you can just go to the hospital you want [without inquiring about bed availability]." She said Covid-19 patient should call Rescue 1122 for shifting to hospital as the latter had complete details about available beds in each hospital.
Answering a question about shortage of drugs, Dr Yasmin said that a trial of potential Covid-19 treatment - Remdesivir - comprising 1,000 participants will start in the province soon. "We will decide based on the results if this drug should be made a part of the standard practice or not. The drug is controlled at the moment, it is not even sold by the company in the open market," she said, adding: "Price of the medicine per dose has been fixed at Rs 102000." She said the people should use such medicine with the advice of medical expert, as the drug has certain complications.
She added that 1916 more people have tested positive for coronavirus in the province today. She said that number of ventilators has been increased amid rising number of coronavirus cases while the beds strength in hospitals is also being increased.
She said that the Punjab government would soon launch patient information desks in all hospitals so the relatives of admitted patients could be kept updated about their condition.
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