‘Smart lockdown in Lahore hotspots from tonight’

LAHORE: In view of the latest study reflecting increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in certain areas and decline in others due to smart lockdown in selected areas of Lahore, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid announced extending the smart lockdown to other areas of the City.

“From tonight by 12.00, the areas of Gulberg, Model Town, Garden Town, Faisal Town, DHA, Gulshan Ravi and Walled City will be completely closed,” said the minister on Wednesday while addressing a press conference at 90 Shahrah-i-Quaid-e-Azam.

In order to control the spread of the virus, these areas have to be fully clocked down, she said. In the identified areas, the minister said, there were reports of violations of the SOPs. “With the blessing of Almighty Allah, the number of cases is still under control when compared with the world and we have seen that due to the smart lockdown, there has been a decline in the number of cases,” she said.

Later, responding to the queries of journalists, the minister said that in the identified areas, the medical stores, Tandoors, milk shops, bakeries and shops of other essential items will not be closed. Food markets and food supply chains will also be allowed to operate.

She said the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department secretary is coordinating with the education and other key departments and a final decision on education institutions will be made after a thorough review of the situation.

She said some incidents of sale of plasma were reported, on which, strict action was taken and necessary legislation was initiated. The trial of plasma therapy, Actemra and other medicines are currently underway and many people have recovered and the results are being assessed by the technical team.

The minister said the total number of Covid-19 patients in Punjab is 69,536, with Lahore reporting the highest number of cases, 34,708. Rawalpindi has 5,554, Faisalabad 4,606, Multan 4,337, Gujranwala 2,461, Sialkot 1,839 and Gujrat 1,836 cases. In the last 24 hours 1,228 people were confirmed corona positive and 21 people lost their lives.

She said 738 patients are under treatment in different hospitals of Punjab. Out of these, 439 are under treatment at government hospitals and 299 in private hospitals. She said 250 beds and 60 ventilators are available in the high dependency units in Lahore.

She said the number of beds in high dependency units has been increased to 1,228 whereas the number of beds in ICUs has been increased to 205 from 187. Overall in Punjab, the number of ventilators has been increased to 268 from 242.

She said, “In the next 10 days to 12 days, BSL-3 labs are being made functional in Sialkot,Rahimyar Khan and Sargodha. The primary and secondary healthcare secretary sai according to the guidelines of the World Health Organization, the burials and funeral guidelines are being revised. Burial guidelines have been revised to facilitate the families of the deceased and the guidelines will be presented to the media after discussion in the Corona Expert Advisory Group meeting shortly. He said now one person from the family of the deceased can attend the funeral and the new guidelines based on the latest research will be implemented.