LAHORE: The new positive cases of Covid-19 jumped to 748 on Friday in Punjab, the highest figures reported in a day across the province this month, raising concerns among health experts.

With the new infections, the total number of the confirmed cases of the virus reached 170,222 in Punjab since March last year.

Of the new cases, most of them – 430 – were reported from Lahore where the total number of confirmed cases reached 86,767 while deaths 2126.

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 claimed lives of 16 more patients during the last 24 hours in Punjab, taking the tally to 5,323.

An official of the health department said that the situation was worrying in Lahore which had witnessed another surge in the new confirmed cases.

He said during the last few weeks or so Punjab was reporting an average 400 new infections daily, a number that has been recorded in Lahore on Friday that must be taken seriously by the health authorities and the other government functionaries.

It is yet not too late for the health authorities to call meeting of the medics and experts to dig out factors behind the new surge in the infection cases and devise a strategy in this respect, the official said.

He said they would have to go for random sampling to examine the disease burden in the masses, a technique that would help them to make a future strategy to bring down the ratio of positive cases and deaths as well.

According to the new Covid-19 update, the virus was also spreading in some major cities of Punjab including Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2021