LAHORE:The Punjab Emergency Services/Rescue 1122 provided timely emergency care to 96,106 victims across the province while responding to 95,985 emergencies in the month of March.
At least 227 people died in all the emergencies happened last month. Rescue 1122 Director-General Dr Rizwan Naseer expressed these views while presiding over a monthly performance review meeting held at Rescue Headquarters here on Friday.
The meeting was attended by the head of all wings of the department. According to statistics, a total of 9,6106 victims in 95,985 emergencies were rescued during the month of March 2020.
Out of these emergencies, 24,608 were road accidents, 57,170 medical emergencies, 930 fire incidents, 2,543 crime incident, 64 drowning incidents, 200 building collapses, six explosions and 10,464 miscellaneous emergencies.
The data revealed that the majority of fire incidents occurred in major cities, including 231 fires in Lahore, 86 in Faisalabad, 70 in Rawalpindi, 45 in Gujranwala, 59 in Multan, 23 in Rahimyar Khan, 46 in Sialkot, 29 in Sargodha, 33 in Bahawalpur and 20 in Okara.
Similarly, 5,762 road accidents were reported in Lahore, 2,485 in Faisalabad, 1,977 in Multan, 1320 in Gujranwala, 765 in Rawalpindi, 945 in Bahawalpur and 741 in Sahiwal.
Keeping in view the current COVID-19 situation in the country, the Rescue Punjab DG said that Rescue 1122 was handling 2,000 medical emergencies on a daily basis across Punjab. He maintained that Rescue 1122 was providing 24/7 services to corona emergency victims.
The citizens can get any assistance, help and awareness by calling Corona Rescue Helpline-1190 which had been established at Rescue Headquarters for proving awareness and assistance to the people about coronavirus emergencies, he said, adding that the helpline was fully functional round the clock. He requested the citizens to adopt the precautionary measures against coronavirus.
Pervaiz: Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has said that besides rescuing Covid-19 victims, Rescue 1122 is rendering great service God-forbid in case of their death for burial whereas their services also deserve to be appreciated in managing the Quarantine in the Expo Centre.
Ch Pervaiz Elahi said that under leadership of DG Rescue Dr Rizwan Naseer, 1122 workers were presenting practical example of "Corona Sey Darna Naheen Larna Hai".
He said, “I cannot help praising their performance who are doing noble work of shifting the patients to the hospitals and Quarantine Centres and also of burial in very organised and integrated manner at the risk of their lives and before burial the body is completely disinfected.
He said that Pakistan Army, Rangers, police, doctors and other institutions were also performing their duties commendably but the manner Rescue 1122 workers were rendering public service day and night was also to be duly acknowledged and the entire nation saluted them for their spirit and service.
He said this is such an institution which in every individual and collective difficult time is seen standing with the sufferer. PU, UHS: Punjab University (PU) and University of Health Sciences (UHS) will collaborate for psychological wellbeing of the people amid coronavirus outbreak.
In this regard, PU VC Prof Niaz Ahmad contacted UHS VC Dr Javed Akram. PU Institute of Applied Psychology Director Dr Rafia Rafique and University of Health Sciences Dr Taimor Baig will launch collaborative efforts for research and psychological counselling of the people with the help of Corona Telemedicine Centre set up by the Punjab governor.