Punjab sees 'drop' in Covid-19 cases, fatalities after smart lockdown

LAHORE: The number of coronavirus cases and associated deaths saw a drop after a smart lockdown was enforced in Covid-19 hotspots across the province to prevent further spread of the virus, officials told the Punjab chief secretary on Thursday.

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

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

The chief secretary directed the participants to identify more areas affected by the infection and sent their report to him. Besides, the meeting decided to completely seal markets found violating the government-defined standard operating procedures (SOPs).

It is noteworthy that 148 more deaths from novel coronavirus (COVID-19) were confirmed in the country in the last 24 hours as the nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 3,903.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 4,044 fresh cases were detected, taking the national tally of the cases to 192,970.

74,070 cases have been detected in Sindh so far, 71,191 in Punjab, 23,887 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 9,817 in Balochistan, 11,710 in Islamabad, 930 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 1,365 in Gilgit Baltistan.