LAHORE: Punjab government has allowed wedding ceremonies to be held in marquees under strict guidelines to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Captain (r) Muhammad Usman, the secretary of the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, said that wedding ceremonies can be held in marquees that are adequately ventilated.
However, he made it clear that no event will be allowed to be held in marquees without proper ventilation.
He stressed the need for following standard operating procedures (SOPs), including wearing mask and social distancing, while attending an event to keep the deadly disease at bay. Dinning is allowed at open-air restaurants, hotels and marquees, he added.
On November 20, the Punjab government had notified a ban on indoor marriage ceremonies across the province to control the second wave of coronavirus pandemic. However, marriage ceremonies and other public gatherings were allowed to be held in open places.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Pakistan recorded 53 deaths due to coronavirus whereas 1,302 new cases were reported during the last 24 hours, according to the figures released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday morning.
According to the latest NCOC data, the death toll has climbed up to 11,886 while the number of confirmed cases stood at 551,842. As of Friday, the total count of active cases in Pakistan was 32,454. The national positivity ratio was recorded at 3.51 per cent.
During the past 24 hours (Thursday), 1,684 patients recovered from the virus and 1,903 patients were still in critical condition. The number of total recoveries stood at 507,502.
As usual, Sindh remained the worst-hit province by the pandemic in terms of cases followed by Punjab and other provinces.
At least 249,498 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 159,705 in Punjab, 68,004 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 18,844 in Balochistan, 41,734 in Islamabad, 9,144 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and 4,913 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
As many as 4,840 individuals have lost their lives in Punjab, 4,059 in Sindh, 1,941 in KP, 196 in Balochistan, 478 in Islamabad, 270 in AJK and 102 in GB.
Pakistan has so far conducted 8,122,447 coronavirus tests and 37,020 of these were conducted during the last 24 hours.
