Punjab conducts over 2.5 mn corona tests: health official

LAHORE: Punjab has conducted more than 2.5 million diagnostic tests of COVID-19, provincial health secretary said in a statement on Thursday.

The health officials conducting over 15,000 tests daily in average to detect positive cases of the coronavirus, Punjab’s Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare said. “In case of a positive test, 20 more tests of the people in contact with the patient being conducted,” provincial health official said.

Describing the upcoming corona vaccination drive in Punjab, secretary health said that the people will be inoculated in different phases.

“In the first phase front-line health workers and the people above 65 years of age will be vaccinated, while in second phase remaining healthcare workers will be immunized”, he said.

“All other people will be vaccinated in third phase of the Covid vaccination campaign”, secretary healthcare department said.

It is to be mentioned here that as many as 2,482 new cases of the coronavirus detected across the country over the previous 24 hours, taking the national tally of infections to 495,075.

Moreover, 50 people succumbed to the disease during this period, according to the latest update released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). The death toll from the infection has soared to 10,511, it said.

A total of 40,509 samples were tested yesterday, out of which 2,482 turned out to be positive.

There are 34,049 active cases of Covid-19 while 450,515 people have recuperated from the disease. According to NCOC 2,251 patients were in critical conditions at different hospitals across the country.