Pandemic claims 313 lives in February

LAHORE:

Punjab passed the peak of the latest wave of coronavirus during February as the month that began with alarming figures of infections and deaths in Lahore and Rawalpindi ended amid an apparently improved situation.

However, 313 people died due to Covid-19 across the province during the month, while

19,078 new cases of infection were confirmed.

Official data shows that the daily death toll as well as infection rates are on the decline.

“The beginning of last month was alarming, especially in Rawalpindi and Lahore districts. The reason of high number of deaths was the Omicron variant of the virus that spread rapidly,” an official of Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department told The Express Tribune.

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The official said the coronavirus diagnostic test positivity rate in the province had dropped to around one per cent.

“It is a blessing that we are now out of danger to a considerable extent as the fifth wave of the pandemic is receding. However,

coronarivus has claimed over 30,000 lives in the country since its outbreak, including 13,500 in Punjab,” he said.

The official said about 1.6 million people in the country had contracted the virus, including over 500,000 in Punjab.

The department’s spokesperson Sayed Hamad Raza said the situation had worsened along with the rest of the world but it had been brought under control in Punjab because of the effective and timely efforts of the provincial government.

“However, we are continuously struggling hard to eradicate coronavirus from the province. Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid and all to officers in the department are monitoring the situation daily,” he said.

The spokesman expressed hope that the situation would further improve in the coming days.

At the same time, he cautioned the people to keep following the coronavirus preventive standard operating procedures (SOPs), pointing out that patients of the disease were still being admitted to hospitals.

Provincial Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Imran Sikandar Baloch said, “We have issued special SOPs to handle the Covid-19 situation and our vaccination campaign is continuing across Punjab.”

He said the ‘reach ever door’ vaccination campaign was continuing and the parents should also get vaccinated their children above 12 years of age.

Besides Lahore, the spread of coronavirus also speedily increased in other big districts of Punjab, including Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala. The provincial health department advised the people to strictly follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the government to avert the spread of the pandemic.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) on December 28 confirmed 75 cases of the Omicron strain of Covid-19 across the country, a week after the first case was reported in Karachi.

“Since [the] WHO [World Health Organisation] designated Omicron as a Variant of Concern on November 26, 2021, the Ministry of NHSRC [National Health Systems Resource Centre], NCOC, NIH [National Institute of Health] and the provincial health departments have remained vigilant to detect the variant in Pakistan,” read an official statement.

“The first case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 was reported on December 13 in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2022.