LAHORE: Lahore Police chief on Sunday said that 95 per cent of the people have started to wear face masks in public after the government made it mandatory with violations punishable by fines and imprisonments.
Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar appreciated the increasing use of masks in the city, adding that the flag march of the law enforcement agencies has left a positive impact on Lahore.
“The people were now recognising the presence of coronavirus as a reality,” he said. He said creating public awareness helps in curtailing the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Dogar further said that filing cases over violation of the guidelines was the last resort to tackle the issue.
Pakistan Army soldiers have started to patrol the roads in Lahore along with police and district officials to ensure enforcement of Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Covid-19 awareness messages were displayed on the vehicles of the troops patrolling the city. “Join hands in the fight against coronavirus,” one of the awareness messages read.
The military was called in to ensure strict adherence to the SOPs.
A third peak of the coronavirus claimed 113 more lives across Pakistan over the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll from the disease to 18,070.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, 4,414 new infections were detected when 45,275 samples were tested during this period. The positivity rate of new cases was recorded at 9.74 per cent, the NCOC said.
The number of Covid-19 patients in critical care across the country has climbed to 5,448.
