LAHORE: After a ‘sharp’ decline in Covid deaths and positive cases in Punjab, the health authorities have fielded teams in all the 36 districts of the province for random sampling to make a final decision either the third wave of the virus is ending or it is still posing a threat to the people.

The massive downward trend was recorded during last week when daily deaths and new cases dropped below 50 and 1,000, respectively in Punjab.

The medical experts were unanimous to the point that the third wave of coronavirus was more deadly than the previous two spikes reported in Punjab.

They had feared that it would prolong for many months because of presence of multiple variants including the most infectious UK strain that had hit Punjab in February this year.

After sharp drop in Covid cases, health teams tasked with collecting 200 samples daily from small dists, 5,000 from Lahore

However, recently a debate started when they observed a rapid and unexpected decline in Covid cases, almost a month after its peak hit Punjab hard in the end of April, raising a question that either the spike is going to end or not.

A senior health official told this reporter that the department had dispatched teams across the province to collect nearly 10,000 samples daily for Covid testing keeping in view the district- and divisional-wise impact of the infection.

The teams were working in the markets, bazaars, shopping plazas and other places, with directions to collect samples of people of various age groups including women, young men and senior citizens.

They have been tasked with collecting daily 200 samples each from all small districts of Punjab, he said.

Similarly, they would obtain 2,000 samples each from the pandemic cities, including Multan, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi for reporting high infection rate.

The provincial capital was the prime focus from where the teams were asked to draw 5,000 samples daily.

Lahore has been reporting nearly 50 deaths and 1,500 positive cases daily during the peak time of the ongoing wave, the senior official said. He said random sampling would be done for a week. After obtaining data, the health experts would make a comparative study by analysing it with those figures reported during the peak season of the third wave of the virus.

The third wave had begun in Punjab in the middle of February this year when the British variant was for the first time detected in Pakistan, he said.

As per official figures, the third Covid peak was reported during the last two weeks of April in Punjab when the province had recorded daily new positive cases from 2,500 to 3,000 and 80 to 100 deaths.

The official data indicated that the highest death toll [127] in Punjab was recorded on April 28 and the maximum number of new positive cases stood at 3,562 on April 18.

The maximum deaths [107] were reported on April 27, 104 on April 20, and 103 on April 29 and April 21.

From April 15 to 30, a total of 42,673 people contracted the virus while 1,201 Covid patients had died.

The decline in new infections and deaths started from the second week of May when the average number of daily positive cases dropped to 1,500 and deaths around 50 daily.

Punjab witnessed a sharp decrease in Covid deaths and positive cases during the last three days or so when the daily casualties dropped below 50 and new infections 1,000, according to the data.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2021