Rise in corona cases: No transport among provinces for two days a week

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: In the wake of an aggressive third wave of Covid-19 spreading across the country, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) banned the inter-provincial travelling by roads over the weekends on Sunday.

“It has been decided to ban the interprovincial transport for two days a week (Saturday and Sunday) with effect from April 10, at 12am, to April 25, 12:59am,” said the NCOC in a statement, reports Geo News. The Centre notified certain exemptions to the new restrictions, given below:

•Goods, freight, medical and other emergency services will be exempted.

•Railways to continue to operate seven days a week with 70pc occupancy.

The ban will be further reviewed by the NCOC on April 20. The announcement comes against the backdrop of the country witnessing an alarming rise of 5,000 coronavirus cases and 81 deaths in 24 hours alone, with Punjab reporting the most fatalities — 43 — followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 23. This took the total number of infections to 687,908 cases and the death toll to 14,778.

According to the NCOC, out of 81 patients who died the previous day, 74 were under treatment in hospitals and seven were at their respective quarantines or homes. The maximum number of ventilators were occupied in four major cities including Multan, 70 percent, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 54 percent, Gujranwala, 60 percent, and Lahore, 65 percent.

The maximum Oxygen beds (alternative oxygen other than ventilators administered as per medical requirement of Covid-19 patient) were also occupied in four major cities of Swat, 71 percent, Gujranwala, 85 percent, Peshawar, 70 percent and Gujrat, 78 percent. Around 422 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country, while no affected person was on the ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan.

Around 55,605 tests were conducted across the country on Saturday, including 9,347 in Sindh, 27,914 in Punjab, 8,681 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 7,498 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 938 in Balochistan, 389 in GB, and 838 in AJK. As many as 613,058 people have recovered so far across Pakistan, making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients. Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 687,908 cases have been detected that also includes the perished, recovered and under treatment 9 patients so far, including AJK 13,321, Balochistan 19,734, GB 5,052, ICT 60,911, KP 91,439, Punjab 231,073 and Sindh 266,378. A total of 14,778 deaths have been recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion.

Around 4,509 patients have perished in Sindh, 6,572 in Punjab, 2,440 in KP, 579 in ICT, 211 in Balochistan, 103 in GB and 364 in AJK. A total of 10,403,335 tests were conducted so far, while 631 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities.

In a parallel development, the Sindh government, that had been a strong proponent of inter-provincial transport ban for two weeks, has decided to suspend on-campus classes and other learning activities for students of pre-nursery to class 8, beginning April 6. The classes will remain suspended for 15 days, said Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani in a tweet. A handout issued on Sunday quoted the Sindh Education Minister as saying that a meeting of the Steering Committee of Sindh Education Department held consultations on the prevailing coronavirus situation in the province and decided to suspend teaching up to class 8th. Ghani said Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah chaired the meeting of the provincial Task Force on Saturday evening and decided to suspend teaching in schools from April 06 to April 21. The academic activities up to class 8th will continue via WhatsApp, email, or studies’ assignments given on a weekly basis by calling the parents to the schools. Ghani said all these emergency precautionary steps were required to safeguard the health of the students of junior classes against the fast spreading third wave of the coronavirus.