LAHORE: The Covid death toll in Punjab reached 7,718 after 56 more patients succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours.

Most deaths were reported from Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Faisalabad.

Thursday’s official Covid update showed that all the 84 ventilators at the Mayo Hospital, Lahore were in use and there is no space for the critical patients of the virus to admit. Similarly, all the ventilators of Services Hospital, Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital, and Pakistan Institute of Kidney and Liver Transplant (PKLI) have been occupied by the Covid patients.

Meanwhile, the total number of the infections in Punjab reached 279,437 after 2,902 more people tested positive. Of them, 1,466 were reported from the provincial capital Lahore, according to the official data.

The data further showed the bed occupancy in the intensive care units of Lahore’s 16 state-run hospitals reached 88.6 per cent and in high dependency units 77.3 per cent.

Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department secretary Nabeel Ahmed Awan said 720 patients recovered during the last 24 hours.

He said 6,685 beds are reserved in all the government hospitals and 4,055 are available. Likewise, out of the 1,601 beds reserved in the hospitals of the provincial metropolis, 777 are vacant.

He said the specialized healthcare had arranged 660 ventilators for coronavirus patients in all hospitals of the province. Of these, 274 are unoccupied.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2021