The Punjab health minister has said that positive cases of Covid-19 are declining in Lahore, but rising in Gujranwala, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid presided over a high-level meeting on Sunday held at Civil Secretariat in Lahore. Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat, Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht, senior members of revenue board, additional chief secretary, additional chief secretary home department and senior civil and military officers participated in the meeting. 

The additional chief secretary home department, commissioner Lahore division and provincial secretary of health informed the meeting regarding the steps taken to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

Ms Rashid said the infection rate was on the decline in Lahore. She said commercial activities were limited from 9am to 6pm in the city. 

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She said there were 97 ventilators in DHQ and tehsil headquarters hospitals. She said the declining trend in cases was due to strict implementation on the SOPs by the administration. She said smart lockdown was imposed in 30 areas of Lahore. 

The provincial health minister said that Sheikhupura’s DHQ hospital consisted of 700 beds and all facilities were available in the hospital.

Ms Rashid said 1,340 corona patients were admitted in the hospitals as of April 25. But now the number has declined to 1,149, she said adding that it was possible due to implementation on Covid-19 protocols.  

The health minister said that there was no shortage of oxygen in the province. She said government ensured to provide oxygen in all hospitals of the province. She said there was complete coordination with the private hospitals regarding Covid-19 treatment.

She informed that additional beds were being arranged in Expo Centre, Lahore as a precaution. She said 280 HDO beds were being arranged in the Expo Centre from today. She said in case of shortage of space in hospitals, the corona patients would be shifted there. 

She said in Gujranwala cases were rising and the government was providing ventilators to the city’s hospitals. 

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Ms Rashid said 16,846 corona tests were conducted in the province during the last 24 hours. 

She said the Punjab government had banned all types of gatherings and processions. She said all indoor and outdoor social activities were outlawed. She said Covid restrictions would remain in place in areas showing 8% positivity ratio.

She said Punjab was leading in the vaccination rollout as 78,000 people were being inoculated daily. She informed the number of vaccination staff was increasing to speed up the inoculation process.

To a question, the health minister said that the Chinese vaccines were effective against the British variant. 

She said Brazilian and South African variants were found in two patients. She said the vaccines which the government had obtained, they were effective against variants. She said British variant was rampant here and Chinses vaccines were effective to save people from falling seriously ill. 

A couple of days ago, Sindh Health Minister Azra Pechuho in a video message while confirming presence of new variants said that vaccine might not work against these mutant versions of corona virus. 

However, Special Assistant to PM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan rejected the impression saying there was no evidence that the Covid-19 vaccines were not effective against these variants. 

Ms Rashid said the province got 2 million vaccine doses and it still had 0.833 million doses. She said 219,000 health workers had been inoculated. She maintained only Punjab was offering home vaccination facility to old people. She said government was mulling to vaccinate the journalist community. She said government had placed an order of 30 million vaccine doses and the province would get 2 million doses in the current month.