LAHORE: Punjab is again witnessing a surge in Covid deaths, new positive cases and infection rate after the Eid lockdown.

According to the official figures released on Tuesday, 89 more patients died during the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 9,500 in the province since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Similarly, the total number of infections reached 328,775 across the province after 1,413 more people tested positive, with Lahore reporting 399 cases, Rawalpindi 193, Sargodha 115, Faisalabad 90 and Multan 67.

Meanwhile, the positivity rate of the infection in Punjab reached 13pc, while in Lahore it was 18pc during the last 24 hours.The data showed that 204 patients were on ventilators at all designated public and private hospitals of the city. Similarly, 355 patients were on high flow oxygen in city hospitals.

Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department Secretary Nabeel Ahmed Awan said that 620 Covid patients had recovered during the last 24 hours across the province. He said 7,570 beds had been reserved in all government hospitals for Covid patients and out of them 5,147 were lying vacant. Out of 3,516 beds reserved in high dependency units in all the state-run hospitals of Punjab, 2,157 were vacant.

He said of 765 ventilators reserved for corona patients, 369 were occupied.

In Lahore’s public sector hospitals, 186 out of 272 ventilators were occupied, Nabeel Awan concluded.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2021