Punjab govt decides banning cattle markets in urban areas

LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to seal more areas of the provincial capital Lahore due to increase in COVID-19 cases, whereas, ordered local administrations not to allow the establishment of cattle markets in populated areas ahead of Eidul Azha, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said that directed concerned authorities to present plans for sealing more hotspot areas of COVID-19 in Lahore.

The chief minister announced that cattle markets will not be established within urban areas as a precautionary measure to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Read: Punjab sees 1365 new coronavirus cases, death toll climbs to 1,495

CM Usman Buzdar directed initiation of crackdowns against the hoarders of medicines, Actemra injections besides ordering the administration and concerned institutions to carry out indiscriminate action against the responsible persons.

He instructed to constitute a committee to look into complaints regarding the private hospitals involved in overcharging patients during the emergency period. He said that strict action will be taken against such hospitals for overcharging patients.

CM Buzdar said that the testing capacity has reached 12,000 per day in Punjab, whereas, the total count of coronavirus patients reached 68,308 and 19,580 patients recovered from the virus. He said that the health department recorded a decline in COVID-19 patients during the last three days.

Read: Lahore rapidly running out of ventilators at major teaching hospitals

The high-dependency units (HDU) has been increased to 1,228 from 671 in Lahore and the oxygen beds in Rawalpindi hospitals were also hiked to 607 from 227. 58 more beds established in Nishtar Hospital – Multan for the coronavirus patients, taking the total number to 202, said Buzdar.

The chief minister announced that special assistance will be given to the families of officers who have lost their lives while performing duties.