LAHORE: With the ventilator occupancy reaching 94 percent in Lahore’s all 16 state-run hospitals, the Covid claimed lives of 98 more people in Punjab during the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll in the province to 7,879.

Of these Covid-19 deaths, 43 were reported in Lahore, where the toll reached 3,258.

As per the official figures, the bed occupancy situation in the intensive care and high dependency units of the public sector hospitals in Lahore was alarming.

The data shows all the ventilators designated for the critical Covid patients at the five major teaching hospitals of the provincial capital have been occupied. These facilities include Mayo, Jinnah, Services, Kot Khawaja Saeed and Mian Nawaz Sharif (Yakki Gate) hospitals.

98 more succumb to virus as 3,073 cases surface in Punjab

The bed occupancy at the ICUs with ventilators at the Lahore General Hospital was reported to be 95pc.

The data further shows that 72.5pc beds in the HDUs of Lahore’s government hospitals were occupied by the patients with low saturation.

Meanwhile, the 3,073 more people tested positive for the virus during the last 24 hours, taking the total number to 285,542. Others were reported in Norowal, Hafizabad, Khanewal, Gujrat, Khushab, Okara, Attock, Chakwal, Jhang, Sheikhupura, Lodhran, Bahawalnagar, Sialkot, Rajanpur, Pakpattan, Toba Tek Singh, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bhakar, Vehari, Rahim Yar Khan and Chinot.

Meanwhile the Covid test ration has again dropped in the province, as according to the official data, the health teams conducted only 23,590 tests during the last 24 hours in Punjab, where the number of tests had been increased to approximately double the figure, recently.

The Punjab government has completely banned indoor and outdoor marriages, dining in hotels and restaurants of 14 districts which has reported above 8pc Covid positivity rate.

It has also completely banned inter-city and inter-provincial transport in these cities on Saturday and Sunday and also ordered to completely shut down all shrines, community centres and parks in these 14 cities following massive circulation of the virus.

The districts included Lahore, Bahawalpur, Bhakkar, DG Khan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Jhang, Kasur, Mulan, Okara, Rawalpindi, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha and Sheikhupura.

No gathering of people will be allowed in these districts.

The SOPs for Covid will be strictly implemented in letter and spirit and instructions have been issued to the district authorities and police.

The government has imposed smart lockdown in 15 more localities of Lahore due to high death rate and new infections.

The areas were located in Gulberg, Model Town, Iqbal Town, Sanda, Islampura, etc.

Separate notifications were issued in this respect on Saturday night by the primary and secondary health care department.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2021