Shehbaz slams govt policy on vaccination: Punjab reports 22 fatalities, 2,040 fresh corona cases

LAHORE: The impact of corona restrictions has started yielding results, as out of 16307 corona tests conducted during the last 24 hours, as many as 2040 fresh virus cases and 22 fatalities were reported across the province.

Provincial tally of cases rise to 306,929 and death toll to 8572 with overall positivity rate of the virus in the province to 12.50%.

Most of the fatalities were reported from Lahore (08), Rawalpindi (04), Gujranwala (02), Sargodha (01) and D.G Khan (01) taking the death toll in these cities to 3521, 1345, 317, 216 and 79, respectively.

As per report of health department, the positivity ratio of virus is 33% at Bhakkar, 31% at Layyah, 25% at Multan, 24 % at Toba Tek Singh, 22 % each at Faisalabad and Gujranwala, 19 % at Pakpatten, 18 % each at Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sargodha, 17 % at Bahawalnagar, 16 % at Vehari, 15 % each at Khanewal and Mianwali, 14 % each at Rajanpur and Khushab, 13 % each at Jhang and Chakwal, 11 % at Hafizabad, 10% each at Bahawalpur and Sahiwal, 09 % each at Kasur, Rahim Yar Khan and Sheikhupura.

The provincial metropolis is facing burden of virus positive cases. As many as 30 areas of the provincial metropolis are observing smart lockdowns where SOPs are being strictly enforced.

With the recovery of 3654 more virus patients, the number of recovered patients in the province reached to 253,687.

On the other hand, as many as 5,842 coronavirus recoveries were reported across the country taking the tally of total recoveries to 728,044.

As per break-up of corona cases and deaths in major cities of the province, Lahore has so far reported 161941 cases and 3521 deaths, Rawalpindi 23612 cases and 1335 deaths, Faisalabad 18808 cases and 870 deaths, Multan 14751 cases and 597 deaths, Bahawalpur 6847 cases and 213 deaths, Gujranwala 7563 cases and 317 deaths, Gujrat 6721 cases and 108 deaths, Sargodha 7008 cases and 216 deaths, D.G Khan 2983 cases and 79 deaths and Sialkot reported 6645 cases and 215 deaths.

Moreover, vaccination of the people is underway at designated vaccination centres across the province. Sources in the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department revealed that they have registered eight million people between 50-59 age group categories out of whom 184000 people have been vaccinated.

In Lahore, three new vaccination centers will be fully functional on Wednesday, the sources said, adding: “Three types of vaccines, Sinopharm, CanSino and Sinovec are being administered to citizens. Currently, they have 833,000 doses of vaccine available.”

On the other hand, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif said that as a citizen of Pakistan, he is concerned about the mishandling of the coronavirus vaccine issue. In a series of tweets, Shehbaz said: “The increasing virus infection and death ratios across the country point to a scary situation. While various strategies including lockdowns do provide temporary relief, experts are convinced that the problem is not going to go away without vaccinating a majority of our population. When the first and second waves clearly underlined the lethality of the virus and the world scrambled to place orders for vaccines, what made the government nap? What deluded it into thinking that all will be well? Why did it not priorities vaccine procurement?” he questioned.

Shehbaz said, “At a time when the procurement of vaccines should have been the only concern of the government, why was the issue placed at the backburner? When the government had the audacity to promise Rs 500 million to each of its legislator, why were resources not allocated for purchasing vaccines?”

He said that the people of the country were justified in holding the government to scrutiny for its acts of “commission and omission,” adding that the “nation needs answers.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021