New COVID-19 cases drop by 60 per cent in Lahore

LAHORE: Coordinated efforts against the novel coronavirus are bearing fruit as Lahore has witnessed a 60 per cent drop in COVID-19 cases during the last one week, ARY News reported.

According to a report issued by the Punjab Health Department, around 4,000 samples were being tested at eight government laboratories in the city against which around 200 people were being diagnosed with COVID-19 daily during the past week.

In June, over 1,000 people were being tested positive for COVID-19 daily in the city, read the report.

Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Muhammad Usman said that the laboratories were conducting tests as per routine in the city, adding that the number of COVID-19 cases dropped by 50 per cent in the city.

Earlier on June 25, the number of coronavirus cases and associated deaths had seen a drop after a smart lockdown had been enforced in Covid-19 hotspots across the province to prevent further spread of the virus, officials had told the Punjab chief secretary.

Chief Secretary Jawad Rafiq Malik had been presiding over a meeting to take stock of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

The meeting had mulled over extending the scope of smart lockdown to protect previous lives from the highly contagious disease. The officials who had attended the meeting presented a report, stating that smart lockdown had helped bring down COVID-19 cases and death rate in the province.