LAHORE: Punjab reported 24 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Monday, the lowest number in a day matching the figure reported some five months back in March when the virus was in its starting phase in the province.

The 24 new patients tested positive for the virus out of the samples drawn from 3,554 persons by the health teams all over the province and sent for analysis.

Of them, 11 were reported in Lahore, five in Sahiwal, two each in Multan, Faisalabad and Mianwali and one each in Sargodha and Gujranwala.

It is the lowest figure reported in Punjab during the last four months, a spokesperson for the health department told this reporter.

He said that since May, Punjab had been reporting new confirmed cases daily in three digits, but the figure dropped to 24 that surprised the health authorities too.

Though, the number of the tests performed was lower than the previous, but the positivity rate is very encouraging that showed that the virus is nose diving, he said.

The total number of confirmed virus cases in Punjab had reached 93,197, he said, adding that for Lahore the figure was 47,519.

The death toll in Lahore reached 826, the highest in any city of Punjab so far, according to the official figures.

“We traced 38 contacts of 10 confirmed patients of the virus during the last 24 hours in Punjab”, the spokesperson for the health department said. It was surprising to the health authorities that for the first time during the last four months none of the contacts tested positive for Covid-19, he said.

He said the Punjab government so far had traced 351,216 contacts of 70,630 confirmed patients across the province. Of the total cases, 12,290 have tested positive for Covid-19 since pandemic hit Punjab, he said.

The positivity ratio in healthcare professionals was reported 23 percent so far. According to the record, 1,100 health professionals have tested positive for Covid-19 out of total 4,756 whose samples were sent for analysis.

About deaths, he said that only four patients succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours in Punjab, taking the death toll to 2,148 so far.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2020