Bureau Report
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Saturday lifted lockdowns from 89 areas of the province after a significant decrease in reported cases from these hotspots, the health department’s focal person Dr Iftikharuddin said. Lockdown restrictions were lifted from eight areas in Peshawar, five in Mardan, 15 in Nowshera, 12 in Bajaur, eight in Abbottabad, five in Lower Dir, four in Buner and Charsadda each, three in Haripur, Swat and Malakand each, and two areas in Upper Chitral, Upper Dir and Bannu each.
Dr Iftikharuddin said the government’s ‘smart lockdown’ policy had resulted in an 80 per cent decline in the number of reported cases from these areas. He added that no cases had been reported for the last six days from the area under lockdown in Mardan while Nowshera district reported one case on Friday compared to 31 cases on June 21. Giving further details, he said just one case was reported from Mansehra district on Saturday, down from 32 cases on June 22, whereas Bajaur district reported three cases yesterday compared to 12 cases on June 16. The official added that there had been a 70pc decrease in the number of infections reported from Swat and Peshawar. More than 50pc of coronavirus patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have recovered from the disease against a nationwide recovery rate of 48.08pc.
