-Provinces adopt strict measures to curb COVID-19 spread
-3,795 cases, 37 deaths reported across country
From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar on Monday chaired a meeting of the apex committee, attended by civil and military leaders from the province, where it was decided to implement coordinated and effective measures to overcome rising COVID-19 cases.
The meeting, attended by Corps Commander Lahore Lieutenant General Majid Ehsan and other civil and military leaders, expressed their concern over the non-implementation of the SOPs during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. The apex committee agreed to launch joint efforts for saving the lives of the public besides also having a consensus over implementing strict COVID-19 measures if the ongoing situation aggravates.
It was agreed that hospitals would be equipped with facilities aimed at dealing with the COVID-19 situation, further ensuring strict implementation of wearing masks in offices and public places. It was further decided that the SOPs would be implemented while avoiding the shutdown of business activities. The apex committee meeting called for imposing strict restrictions in areas under micro or smart lockdown.
Speaking during the meeting, Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar said that they have made isolation centers at the DHQs and Expo Centre Lahore functional.
A briefing on the COVID-19 situation during the meeting said the virus situation in Punjab has reached the levels where it was during June 2020. “We have added 2017 ventilators at the Punjab health facilities to deal with the rising cases,” the meeting was apprised.
Meanwhile, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has been told on Monday that the provincial authorities were implementing strict measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic by the imposition of fines and seizing properties of violators of the standard operating procedures (SOPs).
A session of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was held under the chair of Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar Monday which was attended by chief secretaries and other high-ups. The session discussed the steps to stop the COVID-19 spread, implementation of SOPs and the situation of consistently increasing positivity rate of the virus.
The federal and provincial officials gave briefings to the participants of the NCOC session. They said that the overall positivity rate of the virus stood at 9.71 per cent and the highest rate was recorded in the Sindh’s capital Karachi up to 21.31 per cent followed by 17.86 per cent in Abbottabad and 16.66 per cent in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
Pakistan on Monday recorded 3,795 new cases and 37 deaths due to the COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.
In the past 24 hours, 37 more people succumbed to the disease, taking the death toll to 8,398. 1,530 patients have recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours and 2,539 patients are in critical condition including 103 reported within a day.
The total count of active cases is 55,354 and the positivity rate of COVID-19 cases reaches up to 9.7 per cent.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), with fresh inclusion of the infections in the country the national tally of cases now currently stands at 420,294.
A total of 39,076 tests were conducted across the country during this period. Overall 356,542 people have recovered from the deadly disease so far while 5,794,242 samples have been tested thus far.
