Punjab Health Minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid has said that in the last 24 hours, 1707 people were Covid-19 positive and 50 people have lost their lives. She said this while addressing a press conference at 90 Shahhra-i-Quaid-i-Azam here on Sunday. . In the last 24 hours, 16,846 Corona tests have been performed. Present on the occasion were Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Ms. Sarah Aslam, Special Secretary Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department Ms. Silwat Saaed, Additional Secretary Development SH&ME Department Dr. Asif Tufail, Covid-19 Consultant Professor Dr. Asad Aslam Khan, Project Director HISDU Ahmer Khan and Director Electronic Media Directorate General Public Relations Rubina Afzal. The Health Minister said that positivity ratio at Bhakkar is 33%, Layyah 31%, Multan 25 %, Toba Tek Singh 24 %, Faisalabad 22 %, Gujranwala 20 %, Pakpatten 19 %, Lahore 18 %, Dera Ghazi Khan 18 %, Sargodha 18 %, Bahawalnagar 17 %, Vehari 16 %, Khanewal 15 %, Mianwali 15 %, Rajanpur 14 %, Khushab 14 %, Jhang 13 %, Chakwal 13 %, Hafizabad 11%, Bahawalpur 10 %, Sahiwal 10 %, Kasur 9 %, Rahim Yar Khan 9 %, Sheikhupura 9 %, Muzaffargarh 8%, Rawalpindi 8 % and Gujrat 8 %.
In Punjab’s DHQ and THQ hospitals, 2730 beds have been reserved for Covid-19 patients out of whom treatment is underway at 600 beds. At DHQs and THQs level hospitals, 97 beds have been reserved for Corona patients out of whom 20 are being used. The Minister said, “Currently, 30 smart lockdowns have been put in place at Lahore. Lahore is witnessing improvement as far as positivity ratio is concerned and the credit goes to the administration.
Oxygen supply has not been interrupted at any government hospitals. From today, 280 High Dependency Units are being made functional at the Expo Center where back up of Oxygen is also being made available. At Expo Center 10 ventilators are being added as well. In Gujranwala government hospitals, 100 % ventilators are in use and we are immediately shifting 5 more ventilators there and adding more ambulances.
The Health Minister further said, we are making arrangements for Oxygen concentrators and generators at hospitals and all this is being done on emergency basis. Our Industry is completely supporting us. We will meet industry representatives to ensure uninterrupted supply of Oxygen. She said Punjab is vaccinating more people per day than any other province in the country. In the last 24 hours, 78,000 people were vaccinated. The NCOC has tasked us to vaccinate 80,000 people per day and we are close to achieving that target. We have registered 8 million people between 50-59 age group category out of whom 18,4000 people have got vaccinated. From 290,000 healthcare workers, 219,00 workers have been vaccinated. So far we have set up 135 vaccination centers and 7 new centers are being added. In Lahore, 3 new centers will be fully functional in two days and cities one center each is being set up in Multan, Rawalpindi Gujranwala and Faisalabad. Three types of vaccines, Sinopharm, CanSino and Sinovec are being administered to citizens. We had received 2.1 million doses of vaccine initially. Currently we have 8,33,000 doses of vaccine available. By next week, another 7 million doses will arrive and Punjab will have its due share. All of this vaccine is being procured by the government itself. We have made arrangements to procure 35 million doses of vaccine which will reach Pakistan in the next 2 months. Punjab has started procurement of vaccine as well and bidding process will be completed by 11th May. Govt has given Rs 1.5 billion to Government of the Punjab to procure vaccine. After 11th May, vaccine will be procured. Only Punjab has started home vaccination. In Lahore, two new ambulances have been added for home vaccination. So far 2709 disabled people, or citizens unable to travel have been vaccinated.”
Dr.Yasmin Rashid said that rumors always mislead people. There are rumors of Brazilian and South African variant circulating in Punjab. Punjab has gene sequencing facility. “Our micro biologists have confirmed that 90 % of virus circulation is of UK origin and 10 virus is of Wuhan origin. So far, we have not found any Brazilian or south African variant. However, the NIH has confirmed presence of 2 cases of these origin. One patient is from Islamabad and the other is from Mianwali. Contact tracing of these two were initiated and presence of virus in other people was not confirmed.
Responding to queries of journalists, she said there has been steady improvement in the number of new cases due to lockdown. The positivity ratio has declined from 23 % to 18 % in Lahore. She added Punjab has benefitted a great deal from smart lockdown.
