COVID positivity ratio plunging in Punjab, Yasmin Rashid

Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the provincial health minister said that the number of patients returning home from hospitals has increased since last week.

"The number of patients admitted to the hospital is much lower than the number of patients discharged from the hospital, and the number of COVID victims is slowly declining," she said.

The minister said that only in 3 districts of the province Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and Khanewal the rate of positive coronavirus cases is more than 5% while in Lahore, which had become a stronghold of the virus, the rate has gone up to 1.5%.

Elaborating on the number of beds and ventilators in the province, she told the conference that out of 2,897 beds allotted for coronavirus patients in primary care hospitals, only 410 are in use while out of 112 ventilators only 9 patients are on ventilators.

She thought that most of the ventilators in the province are being used in Multan with 67%, followed by Lahore with 38%, Bahawalpur with 32% and Rawalpindi with 16%.

The provincial minister said that the rate of beds in use in other districts has come also down significantly and in Gujranwala where the situation was very bad last month, the rate is now 20 per cent.

Yasmeen Rashid said that the rate of beds used in High Dependency Units (HDUs) has also come down 'significantly' to 54 per cent in Multan and less than 40 per cent in the rest of the province.

Minister said that the situation has improved due to a week-long lockdown on Eid-ul-Fitr and strict implementation of Coronavirus SOPs.

Ms Rashid said that smart lockdown is currently in force in 6 areas of Multan.

NCOC’s enforced measures include the closure of all economic activities until 8 p.m., business closure on Saturdays and Sundays, ban on indoor weddings and outdoor weddings with only 150 guests, permission for outdoor dining and takeaways, a complete ban on sports and public transport 50% with passengers.

The provincial minister said the government had ample stock of the vaccine but all vaccination centres were currently being given only a second dose of Sinopharm.

Health Minister said that the government has Sinopharm, Sinovac, AstraZeneca and CanSino available.

People often come and say that we need such and such vaccine, only one type of vaccine is given at a time.

Earlier, AstraZeneca was given and now Sinovac is being administered in centres, she told.

The government has 1.4 million doses of the vaccine and will be able to make its vaccine in three months, she said.