LAHORE: The Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department on Tuesday issued an update to the restrictions that would be applied to cities within the province to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
According to the notification, the new standard operating procedures (SOPs) have outlined that indoor dining shall remain barred, however, outdoor dining is now permitted till 10 pm on weekdays. Takeaways and home delivery are to be allowed.
Ban on indoor gatherings shall continue to remain in place while outdoor gatherings with the upper limit of 300 people – particularly concerning marriage halls – are hereby allowed subject to strict adherence to Covid-19 SOPs.
All manner of sports, festivals, cultural and other events would remain banned. Furthermore, amusement parks would be closed, but jogging tracks would be allowed to remain open so long as they follow the SOPs.
Certain activities will be allowed to continue in a 24/7 manner, including all manner of agricultural activities, medical services and pharmacies stores, opticians, bakeries along with general or grocery stores, milk, meat and chicken shops.
Tire puncture shops, fruit, vegetable shops, tandoors, flour mills, postal and courier services are also allowed to operate on 24 hours basis.
Driver hotels, petrol pumps, oil depots, LPG outlets and filling plants, agriculture machinery workshops and spare parts shops shall also remain open.
The national tally on Tuesday of total active Covid-19 cases recorded 34,535 with 3,270 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 1,733 people recovered from the disease during the last 24 hours.
72 coronavirus patients have died during the past 24 hours, 64 of whom were under treatment in hospital and eight of them perished in their respective homes or quarantines, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
During the last 24 hours, most of the deaths had occurred in Punjab followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
Out of the total 72 deaths that occurred during the last 24 hours, 27 of the deceased had died on ventilators during their treatment.
The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Multan 52 per cent, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) 57 per cent, Peshawar 32 per cent and Lahore 52 per cent. The maximum oxygen beds (alternate oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per the medical requirement of the patient) was also occupied in four major areas of Gujrat 86 per cent, Peshawar 62 per cent, ICT 51 per cent and Rawalpindi 37 per cent.
Around 334 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no coronavirus patient was on a ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), GilgitB-altistan (GB) and Balochistan.
Some 39,742 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 6,622 in Sindh, 20,279 in Punjab, 6,278 in KP, 5,384 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 249 in Balochistan, 246 in GB, and 684 in AJK. Around 585,271 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 90 per cent recovery ratio of the affected patients.
Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 633,741 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment Covid-19 patients so far, including AJK 11,792, Balochistan 19,347, GB 4,974, ICT 52,676, KP 80,519, Punjab 200,969 and Sindh 263,464.
About 13,935 deaths were recorded in the country since the eruption of the contagion.
Around 4,479 perished in Sindh where no deaths occurred during the past 24 hours.
6,039 in Punjab had died with 57 deaths occurred in the past 24 hours. 50 of them died in the hospital and seven perished out of the hospital. 2,225 in KP where 10 of them died in hospital on Monday, 548 in ICT among three deaths in the hospital during past 24 hours, 203 in Balochistan, 103 in GB and 338 in AJK among two of them succumbed to the deadly virus including one in hospital and one out of the hospital on Monday.
A total of 9,857,233 coronavirus tests have been conducted so far, while 631 hospitals are equipped with Covid facilities. Some 3,019 coronavirus patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.
