A group of police officers were assaulted by civilians when the latter were asked by the former to adhere to the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs), it emerged on Wednesday.
Footage of the incident went viral on social media, with several people seen surrounding the personnel and beating them, a local news station reported.
The officers had been urging the people to put on face masks, which have proven to be one of the most effective ways of reducing the rate of transmission. However, a person on the scene engaged in an argument with them. The verbal conflict soon therein escalated to a physical one.
Police said that all four men involved in the assault have been arrested, while a first information report (FIR) has also been registered against them.
On Tuesday, an official of the provincial health department said that a variant of the virus from the UK was causing increasing deaths during the third wave of the pandemic.
For the fourth time during the ongoing month, the province’s daily death toll surpassed the previous record. The most alarming indicator was that over half of the deaths took place in Lahore.
Punjab government has so far vaccinated about one million people against coronavirus, including front line health workers and senior citizens.
However, it has failed to bring the increasing infection and death rates under control in the province, including Lahore.
