LAHORE: The second wave of Covid-19 is getting lethal as Punjab’s death rate has reached 5.5 per cent, which is higher from other provinces and regions of the country.

An official update on the Covid-19 showed Punjab’s highest deaths in the first spike of the virus was 2.51 per cent.Since the beginning of the second wave in October, Punjab witnessed a sharp surge in the Covid-19 deaths which continued to increase with no respite.In November, the death rate was 4.4 per cent which is now 5.5 per cent in the last week of December.

The infection mortality rate in Azad Jammu and Kashmir is 3.19pc, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1.94pc, Sindh 1.32pc, Gilgit-Baltistan 1.86pc, Balochistan 1.4pc and Islamabad 1.11pc.

Health and medical experts predict a further increase in the weeks to come.

Lahore is on the top among other districts of Punjab with 1,540 deaths, followed by Rawalpindi’s 672 and Faisalabad 342.

The total number of deaths from virus complications in Punjab crossed 3,900 after 21 more people died from virus reasons on Sunday.

The data tell the pandemic has affected the people falling in the 21-30 years group the most in both spikes, followed by those falling in 31-40 and 41-50 age groups as theseage groups remained outdoors for education, jobs, business and other matters and thatmost of them did not follow guidelines issued by the Punjab government.

According to the updated figures, 482 more infections were reported from Punjab on Monday, of them 260 were from Lahore, 47Faisalabad, 23Rawalpindi, and 20 cases from Bahawalpur.

The remaining cases were reported from other districts.The total number of positive cases in Punjab reached 136,147 and 3,921 deaths.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2020