BAHAWALPUR: As the Bahawalpur commissioner has predicted that the city may be declared coronavirus free in the next two weeks, four more positive cases emerged in Jhang district on Thursday.

Seeing a decline in positive case, Bahawalpur Commissioner Asif Iqbal Chaudhry claimed that in the next 15 days, Bahawalpur could be declared a coronavirus-free city if no new positive case was reported and no case was under treatment in the city. The commissioner told a private channel that presently there were 195 coronavirus cases in Bahawalpur division.

Also,doctors of the Bahawalpur Government Civil Hospital saw off 42 people on Thursday who defeated coronavirus and were declared negative. The discharged batch included members of Tableeghi Jamaat which was treated for 14 days. Another seven members are still under treatment.

Of 1,200 Tableeghi Jamaat members who were quarantined in the hostels of Islamia University Bahawalpur, most of them have been released and allowed to go home. Also, a bio-safety laboratory-3 (BSL-3) at the civil hospital is ready to test people for coronavirus.

According to Medical Superintendent Dr Rana Muhammad Yousaf, the BSL-3 began experimental tests on Thursday. He said the laboratory would be conducting tests for the entire Bahawalpur division. Also, the people visiting emergency and flu counters and isolation wards at the Bahawal Victoria Hospital and Government Civil Hospital said that only the BVH pulmonologists were available for their examination and treatment during their visits to the hospitals. They demanded that other on-duty doctors treat patients.

Chief Executive Officer of the two hospitals Prof Dr Mukhtar Hussain denied the charge and said he formed a team of professors to ensure patients’ access to on-duty doctors.

He said he personally supervised and checked the on-duty doctors to make sure that the visiting patients in wards or flu clinics be thoroughly examined by the doctors.

JHANG: Four more people have tested positive for coronavirus, including an instructor of general nursing school and a homeopathic doctor.

The other two persons are a 17-year-old youth, of Purani Eidgah, and a police constable, of Ghausia Colony. The fresh cases have been shifted to the quarantine centre. The number of positive cases in Jhang has jumped up to 51.

SHEIKHUPURA: Two persons, including a woman, who died from Covid-19 complications in the Mayo Hospital were buried in their native graveyards in the district on Thursday.

The deceased, 60, of village Membarwali, remained under treatment at the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital of Sharqpur and later on in the Mayo Hospital. The other deceased, a 50-year-old man, of Nizampura locality, was taken to a Ferozewala hospital four days ago. The hospital authority shifted him to the Mayo Hospital. Both burial were undertaken by a special force.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2020