COVID-19 cases going down in Punjab, says health minister

LAHORE: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Sunday said that the coronavirus cases going down in the province, ARY News reported.

Talking to media here, health minister said that in last 24 hours 696 positive cases of coronavirus and 22 deaths reported in the province.

The number of people going home from hospitals after recovering from the COVID-19 has increased. “People being admitted to hospitals are fewer than the number of patients being discharged”, she said.

Giving details about the occupancy rates of beds, the minister said in Multan 67 percent, Lahore 38 percent and in Rawalpindi 16 pct beds have been occupied.

Only three districts in the province, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and Khanewal, have positive cases rate higher than five per cent, the minister said. Lahore, which was earlier considered a coronavirus hotspot, having positive cases rate reduced to 1.5 percent, the minister said.

Health Minister said that only six areas in Multan have been currently under smart lockdown.

All restrictions decided by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) would remain in place, she said. These include a ban on all commercial activities after 8:00pm, ban on indoor weddings while outdoor weddings can be held, ban on indoor dining while outdoor dining and takeaway is allowed, and a complete ban on sports.

Rashid said the provincial government was reopening swimming pools while tourism has also been reopened subject to SOPs. The NCOC would take a decision on reopening cinemas and theatres next week.

She said if people properly maintained SOPs and got vaccinated — then the government would be able to “control the pandemic” within the next three to four months.

The minister stressed that the government had adequate stocks of vaccines. “The vaccines available to the government are Sinopharm, SinoVac, AstraZeneca and CanSino,” the minister said. She said that the government has presently 1.4 million vaccines in available stock.