LAHORE: While Punjab reported more than 400 daily cases on Tuesday for the first time since July, the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department declared several neighbourhoods in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan as coronavirus hotspots, announcing to put them under strict restrictions.
According to a notification from the department released late Monday night, there had been a “constant increase in positivity percentage and prevalence of Covid-19 in the province of Punjab during the last two weeks which poses a serious and imminent threat to public health”.
کروناوائرس کے بڑھتے ہوئے کیسز کو مدنظر رکھتے ہوئے حکومت پنجاب کی جانب سے لاہور کے 11 علاقوں میں سمارٹ لاک ڈاون نافذ کیا جا رہا ہے ۔ عوام الناس سے گزارش ہے کہ کروناوائرس کو پھیلنے سے روکنے کے لیے ایس او پیز پر عمل درآمد یقینی بنائیں۔ pic.twitter.com/hgX7xxH3eO
— Health Department Punjab (@HealthPunjabGov) November 10, 2020
To curtail the spread of the disease, it further said, the government decided to enforce a lockdown in certain residential neighbourhoods in the three metropolitan cities “with immediate effect” until November 19.
The neighbourhoods in Lahore selected for the lockdown include New Muslim Town; Raza, Sikandar and Umar blocks of Iqbal Town; certain blocks in Garden Town; Cavalary Ground; DHA Phase 1 (AA Block); DHA Phase 6 (L Sector, A Sector); Askari 11; Anarkali; Mozang; Shadman and certain parts of Gulshan-e-Ravi.
Fauji Foundation University, New Lalazar; Government Girls Highschool, Kahuta and Satellite Town and Abbasi Abad were locked down in Rawalpindi. Whereas in Multan, Naqshband Colony; Gulgasht Colony/Khairabad; Mepco Colony; Khwajabad/Multan Kacheri and Sadat Colony were put under restrictions.
The notification further said that all possible measures needed to be taken in the said localities to control the spread of the virus.
According to the notification, all markets, shopping malls, restaurants and offices would remain closed in these areas while movement would be restricted and all public gatherings would be banned.
Grocery stores, fruit and vegetable shops, tandoors and petrol pumps would be allowed to remain open between 9:00 am and 7:00 pm on all days of the week. Milk shops, fish and meat shops, and bakeries would be allowed to open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.
All medical services, including hospitals, clinics and pharmacies would remain open 24 hours a day, the notification said.
Pakistan on Tuesday reported 1,637 infections of the novel coronavirus after conducting 31,904 tests—a positivity ratio of 5.13 percent.
Earlier this week, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said that around 4,136 micro and smart lockdowns have been imposed across the country to curb the spread of the pandemic.
It noted that the positivity ratio was mounting in major cities once more, with many regions now exceeding 10 percent, including Multan, Gilgit, Muzafarabad, and Mirpur.
The health authorities have been sounding the alarm about a second wave of the virus for several weeks now, with health officials warning it appears deadlier than the first. Daily infections and deaths are once more on the rise, raising fears that disease is making a comeback as the public becomes more apathetic toward social distancing measures.
Meanwhile, the country has yet to fully utilise its testing capacity of 73,572 and is currently testing significantly below numbers proposed by global health experts. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Pakistan’s testing policies likely only record the most symptomatic patients while ignoring the spread among asymptomatic carriers, which recent studies have suggested comprise the majority of infections in the country.
