LAHORE: While there is no let up in the spread of coronavirus, the overall positivity rate of virus in Punjab reached to 7.10 percent while the health professionals fear spike in Covid-19 cases.
Out of 22,658 tests conducted during the last 24 hours, 1,609 fresh infections and 24 fatalities were reported in the province taking the tally of cases to 391,298 and death toll to 11,821.
With the recovery of 1,002 more corona positive patients during the last 24 hours, the total number of recovered patients in Punjab reached to 352,328. On the other hand, as many as 3,548 coronavirus recoveries were reported across the country during the last 24 hours taking the tally of recoveries to 10,36,921 showing recovery rate of 89.7 percent.
During the last 24 hours, eight deaths were reported from Lahore, seven in Rawalpindi, five in Gujranwala and three in Faisalabad taking death toll in these cities to 4,684, 1,845, 499 and 1,199 respectively.
As per breakup of corona cases and deaths in major cities of the province, Lahore has so far reported 1,99,431 cases and 4,684 deaths, Rawalpindi 33,738 cases and 1,845 deaths, Faisalabad 23,551 cases and 1,199 deaths, Multan 19,878 cases and 890 deaths, Gujranwala 9,307 cases and 499 deaths, Sargodha 9,334 cases and 302 deaths, Sheikhupura 4,285 cases and 131 deaths, Muzaffargarh 2,607 cases and 341 deaths and Sialkot reported 8,053 cases and 244 deaths.
Moreover, the province-wide vaccination campaign is successfully underway at 662 vaccination centers. A spokesman of Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department said that surge in corona cases in Punjab is a matter of concern. There are ample stock of vaccines available at all the vaccination centers, he added.
Expressing concern over unlatched violations of tobacco control laws and the illegal sale of cigarettes in the country, health professionals said the risk to pulmonary system due to Covid-19 pandemic has increased and smoking is adding to it. Laws and policies designed to curb smoking are still failing to deliver results due to illegal sale of cigarettes, they said.
To protect public health, the government and policy makers are pursuing a policy of taxing cigarettes and making them expensive; however, the cigarettes are conveniently available at much lower prices than the government regulated price of 63 per pack, revealed a survey.
"One can find an array of local brands, sold as low as Rs 20 per pack, openly across the country unchecked. This raises serious questions on the government's implementation efforts of tobacco control laws," expert said.
A study by Pakistan National Heart Association found that 63 percent of packs collected for research were priced between 30 to 60 and 90 percent of them were locally manufactured.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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