LAHORE: With record 57 deaths in a day for the previous five months, the total infections in Punjab crossed the 0.2 million mark after 1,929 more people tested positive for the virus during the last 24 hours.

Punjab’s total Covid deaths also crossed the 6,000 figures, the highest one in all the provinces and other regions of the country.

Being the hotspot of coronavirus, Punjab is the only province that shared approximately 60 per cent burden of the infections.

According to official data, the total number of positive cases in Punjab reached 200,969 with 6,037 deaths.

Total Covid infections cross 0.2m mark; 1,929 more test positive for virus

According to country-wide official figures, Sindh is the second province by reporting the highest number of total Covid deaths [4,479] after Punjab.

Of the new confirmed cases of Punjab, 1,058 were reported from Lahore where the total infections reached 105,305 with 2,465 deaths.

The official data showed that after Lahore the infection was spreading in three other major cities - Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan.

Recently, the sudden increase has also been witnessed in some districts located alongside the GT Road belt. They are Gujranwala, Gujrat, Jhelum.

Hafizabad and Sialkot are also facing a serious threat to fast spread of the virus and heavy movement of population in the above-mentioned all districts is one of the major reasons for outbreak of the infections.

Though, the Punjab government has imposed lockdown in some of these cities for reporting a surge in the cases and to curtail the spread, normalcy doesn’t seem in sight.

The figures show the young people falling in the age groups of 21-30 and 31-40 are the most affected among others since March 2020.

The healthcare workers in Punjab have been the most vulnerable community due to exposure to the virus.

The data shows out of a total 23,399 healthcare workers tested for Covid, 2778 contracted the virus that constitutes 12 percentage.

Meanwhile, the test ratio in Punjab remained unchanged so far despite the third wave.

A spokesperson for the health department said the teams performed a total of 20,079 tests during the last 24 hours in Punjab.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2021