Punjab govt mulls extending COVID lockdown for another week: sources

LAHORE: Punjab government has been mulling over extending COVID lockdown in the province for another week, previously imposed to restrict movement on Eid, ARY NEWS reported quoting sources.

According to sources having knowledge of the provincial decision-making, the provincial government has mulled regarding extending the lockdown from May 16 to May 24.

“A consensus has been made among the provincial authorities that extending the lockdown would further improve the situation in the province that has suffered most from the pandemic,” they said.

The sources, however, said that a final decision on extending lockdown would be made during a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

It is pertinent to mention here that restrictions on movements imposed on Eid have apparently yielded positive results as in a sharp decline, Pakistan on Saturday reported less than 2,000 COVID-19 cases and 83 deaths during the past 24 hours.

Read More: Punjab sees decline in new Covid infections, deaths after lockdown

According to statistics shared by the NCOC, as many as 30,248 tests were performed during the past 24 hours, which resulted in a 5.06 percent positivity ratio or 1,531 cases.

The death toll from the infection has reached 19,467 in the country after NCOC reported 83 more COVID-related deaths today.

“The active COVID-19 cases stand at 71,804 in the country,” it said adding that 4,805 patients are currently being treated at 639 nationwide hospitals while 588 are put on ventilators.

The centre further shared 783,480 patients have recovered from the virus out of 874,751 positive cases and added that Punjab reported the most 324,589 cases and 9,322 deaths.