Punjab reports 21 more corona deaths: Seven more areas of Lahore to be locked down for a week: minister

LAHORE: While the City of Lahore is considered as epicentre of the novel coronavirus with 590 deaths and 35582 Covid-19 cases so far, the Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid Wednesday announced to impose one week's lockdown in seven more areas of Lahore to check the spread of virus.

The areas of Lahore which are being sealed from 12:00 am for one week include Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Gulberg, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Garden Town, Faisal Town, Model Town and Walled City.

During the last 24 hours, 1,228 fresh cases were reported across the province taking the tally to 69,536 while with 21 more deaths the death toll reached to 1,516. Out of them, 762 fresh cases were reported in Lahore with 10 deaths in the last 24 hours.

As many as 355 corona positive recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours taking the tally of recovered patients in the province to 19,935.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid told media at a news conference here on Wednesday that the main reason to seal the aforementioned areas is to halt the surge in the number of coronavirus cases. "Hopefully, if SOPs are implemented in a week, there will be a clear reduction in coronavirus cases," she said, adding: "The government is trying its level best to ensure economic activities took place and at the same time measures were being taken to for the safety of citizens."

To a query, she expressed concern over SOPs violations, which she said are being reported from marketplaces and business centres. She urged the masses to follow safety measures while strictly wearing masks, especially outdoors and at public spaces.

"We are fulfilling our responsibility, but the people are also responsible in combating the contagious disease," she stressed.

Talking about the health facilities, provision of medical equipment and hospital capacity in the medical centres of the province, she pointed out that during the last 10 days, the number of High Dependency Units (HDU) and ventilators have increased in Punjab. She said that about 30 to 50 percent of the beds allocated for Covid-19 patients in public sector hospitals were empty. "We have still 250 High Dependency Units [HDU] and 60 ventilators empty," she added.

It may be added that so far, 1403 coronavirus cases were surfaced in DHA, 736 in Gulberg, 659 in Model Town, 188 in Faisal Town, 238 in Garden Town, 212 in Gulshan-e- Ravi and 170 in Walled City.

On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif said in a tweet that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ministers are tearing into each other when the coronavirus pandemic is at its peak.

In his tweet, Shahbaz said that hundreds are dying and thousands are getting infected by the virus. This says a lot about how serious this "Tabdeeli Sarkar" is, he added. "Only goes to show that it is a hotchpotch of political vested interests put together that is ruining Pakistan" Shahbaz said.