The provincial capital has become the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic as the Punjab Health Department warned the decision makers that the number of infected people was estimated to be at 670,000, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Monday.

In a summary submitted by the Health Department to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, it was said that there had been an exponential rise in number of patients in Lahore but the Punjab government rejected the summary and the proposal for a complete four-week lockdown.

The Health Department had also recommended that people should remain indoor and all people aged more than 50 years must be quarantined at their homes. No locality of Lahore is safe from the virus, it added.

Commenting on the situation, senior analyst Salim Bokhari said the government had no planning or policy on how to deal with the pandemic and implement the lockdown.

PPP leader Chaudhry Manzoor also talked to 24NewsHD said the entire health system had collapsed and the situation was out of control.

The latest revelations about Lahore came as Pakistan continues to see an alarming rise in the confirmed coronavirus cases as the virus was found in another 2,964 people during the past 24 hours (Sunday), raising the overall total to 72,460.

The latest figures released by National Command and Operation Centre on Monday morning show that the same period saw 60 more deaths after which the death toll has climbed to 72,460.

On the other hand, the number of cases in Sindh has now increased to 28,245 with the addition of new ones. It is followed by 26,240 in Punjab, 10,027 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4,393 in Balochistan, 2,539 in Islamabad, 711 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 255 in Azad Kashmir.

Punjab and Sindh have now surpassed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in terms of deaths as the tally for the two provinces now stands at 497 and 481 respectively.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is third with 473 followed by Balochistan 47, Islamabad 28, Gilgit-Baltistan 11 and Azad Kashmir six.

As far as the recovery rate is concerned, there are 44,834 active cases currently in Pakistan while 26,083 patients have fully recovered from the infection.

Meanwhile, the total number of tests conducted since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak in Pakistan has increased to 561,136 as 14,398 new ones were carried out during on Sunday.   

On the other hand, four more doctors died of coronavirus in Pakistan amid the complaints about lack of personal protection equipment and testing for the healthcare professionals, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Monday.

One of the latest victims of coronavirus is Dr Phag Chand of Swabi who ran his own clinic for many years.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa saw the death two more doctors – Dr Aurangzeb, a pathologist at Peshawar Police Service Hospital, and Dr Azam, a child specialist at a local hospital in Nowshera.

The latest deaths mean that a total of five doctors have so far died in the province since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

In Balochistan, Dr Shah Wali Jan – a child specialist at DHQ Mustang – died at Bolan Medical Complex, Quetta where he was under treatment in the isolation ward.

Earlier, the wife of Dr Zubair – the in-charge of Bolan Medical Complex’s trauma centre who had died after being infected by the virus some days back – has accused the health facility of not treating her husband properly.