Notices to 3 labs over serological tests

LAHORE:The Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) on Friday issued notices to three laboratories for conducting serological tests for Covid-19 diagnosis.

The PHC got information that the Shaukat Khanum Laboratory, Chugtai Laboratory and Genome Lab were conducting serological tests for diagnosis of Covid-19, which was in contravention to the directions issued earlier by the Punjab Healthcare Commission and Provincial Health Department.

The administrations of the laboratories have been directed to appear before the commission. Also, the centres have also been stopped again from conducting the serological tests for Covid-19.

PMDC: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) issued more than 8,500 certificates of registration in 30 working days.

According to a statement issued by PM&DC on Friday, the council has been working day and night to cover the backlog and pending cases as it remained dysfunctional for almost six months. Almost 8,500 cases out of 10,200 have been made and dispatched to the doctors,” it stated.

According to a PMDC spokesperson, the PMDC registrar has directed all the sections to work overtime and has declared weekends as working days to finish the entire pending backlog in order to facilitate the doctors.

She said that PMDC is issuing provisional, permanent, renewal certificates and good standing certificates. Postgraduate additional qualifications are also being endorsed after mandatory verifications. PMDC has also issued almost 1,911 verifications.

Clean-up operation: The Lahore division commissioner has directed immediate removal of encroachments from around the boundary wall of Shalimar Gardens, a world heritage site.

Chairing a meeting here on Friday, the Lahore commissioner said that all encroachments present outside the wall of Shalimar Gardens should be removed and a buffer zone between the wall and the roads should be maintained.

He said a police team should also be permanently deputed at the site to stop reemergence of the encroachments. He said barriers should be erected between the road and the wall as a preventive measure as well as to ensure the buffer zone.

In the end, a joint team of the district administration, Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab and police was constituted to implement the decisions taken in the meeting. Anti-encroachment drive: The chief traffic officer (CTO) Lahore ordered traffic police to conduct operation against encroachments to maintain smooth traffic flow across the City. He directed all the DSPs to meet the representatives of traders and take them into confidence for the removal of encroachments.

Calls data: The Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) issued 15 Emergency Helpline call data of Eid holidays.

According to the details, 15 Emergency Helpline received 25,442 calls out of which 21,801 were bogus. Cases were registered on 3,641 calls. Around 97 calls were about robbery, 217 about car theft, three about murder and 87 calls were made regarding theft incidents.