LAHORE: The Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD) is planning to seek assistance of religious scholars, particularly prayer leaders of mosques, in creating awareness among people regarding how they can protect themselves and their loved ones from getting infected with the lethal dengue virus which is likely to be swelled sharply due to stagnant water of monsoon rains.
An official of the health department said on Sunday that so far this year a total of 73 confirmed dengue cases were reported from Punjab. Of them, 34 confirmed cases were reported from Lahore while currently there is no patient in any state-run hospital. In this regard, he said the department is conducting operations across the province to eradicate dengue larva and stop spread of the lethal disease.
"Our dengue control teams on Saturday destroyed dengue larva from 833 places in Punjab while they also checked 57,253 indoor and 10,826 outdoor places in Lahore," he said, adding that during the checking, the larva was destroyed from 694 indoor and outdoor places in Lahore.
He further said that P&SHD Secretary Sarah Aslam, who is actively leading these operations to save the people from this lethal virus after Covid-19, is also considering devising a line of action with the help of religious scholars under which the prayer leaders of mosques would deliver awareness lectures to the worshipers after every prayer. He added that the people must prove themselves as responsible citizens by making their environment clean.
Meanwhile, Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD) Secretary, Sarah Aslam in a statement said that it is imperative that all people above the age of 18 years be vaccinated immediately.
She said that a total of 1,006 new coronavirus cases were reported across Punjab during the last 24 hours taking the provincial tally to 371,606 patients. "By now, 339,381 patients have been recovered and the number of active cases rose to 20,880 patients across Punjab," she said, adding that a total of 18 people succumbed to the virus during the same period and now the provincial death toll was at 11,345.
According to her, 21,463 tests were performed in the last 24 hours. Besides others, she added that 445 cases were reported in Lahore followed by 157 in Rawalpindi, 59 cases in Multan, 55 in Rahim Yar Khan, 41 in Gujranwala, 32 in Faisalabad, 30 in Bahawalpur, 24 cases in Sargodha and 21 in Sialkot, 18 in Muzaffargarh, 16 in Mianwali, 15 in Dera Ghazi Khan, 11 in Khanewal and 7 in Sahiwal during the last 24 hours.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021