Health Minister Warns Of Strong Coronavirus Wave In Punjab

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Nov, 2020 ) :Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has warned of a strong and severe second wave of coronavirus pandemic in the province and urged utmost caution till the introduction of new vaccine.

Speaking at a press conference at the Chief Minister Secretariat on Sunday, the Dr Yasmin Rashid said that cases were reduced to less than 100 a day around mid September, had now increased manifolds.

She said 2979 people were died due to COVID-19 so far in Punjab adding that in the last 24 hours 19 people had lost their lives.

Dr Yasmin said that the health department had continuously asked people to follow SOPs in the last few months as the pandemic was not ended yet and now a sudden rise in the number of cases was also observed.

She said that patients with moderate to severe symptoms were admitted in hospitals only.

She said that currently 997 people were admitted to hospitals out of which 145 were on ventilators and 475 were on oxygenated beds while 16,204 patients were in quarantine or self isolation.

The minister said the healthcare staff was fighting on frontline and as many as 2638 health members got infected.

She said that Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala were the cities which were the worst effected. She stated that in Gujranwala, the test to positivity ratio had increased to four percent, adding that around 25 days ago, the positivity ratio in Multan reached 31 percent and after a lot of hard work it was reduced to 17 percent. "Although it has been brought down to 12 percent, it still remains highest in Punjab," she added.

The increase in positivity ratio was alarming in Punjab, the minister said.

She said that in Multan out of all beds reserved for COVID-19 patients, 65 percent were occupied and 41 ventilators out of a total of 68 were currently in use.

The Health Minister said that currently smart lockdowns were enforced in 2030 localities of the province restricting movement of almost 40,000 people.

She said the reason of a strong second wave was utter disregard for SOPs by the people.

She said that cases had come down significantly in the first wave by the end of summer, due to which the government had opened up educational institutions and businesses.

She said now everyone was worried and the government had placed restrictions on business and closed down educational institutions.

Dr Yasmin said the government had sent face masks and hand sanitizers in Gujranwala gathering which were turned down by the opposition. "Afterwards we saw positivity ratio was going up in Gujranwala," she added. She said that all statistics of the pandemic were shared with public and if the cases continued to increase, the government would have to enforce lockdowns. "Our performance was acknowledged and appreciated by the UN and WHO experts," she said.

With the joint efforts of stakeholders, the government was able to return to normal life, she said.

"Currently Peshawar is seeing a high positivity ratio," she added.

Dr Yasmin said the government's first priority was to mitigate risk to lives of the people. She said the nation had to stop the spread of COVID-19, to bring economy on track.

"We closed education institutions with a heavy heart," she said. She said usage of face-mask could reduce the risk of spread of virus by 70 percent.

"We have asked opposition that political activities and gathering may continue in routine any time but currently we are facing a crisis situation and no one should play with the lives of people," the minister said.

She was of the view the love of country must be beyond one's own interests and safety of people's lives must be first priority.

"As a doctor and as a health minister, I am under great stress to control the pandemic," she said.

She appealed the opposition that they might start their activities once the pandemic was under control.

Responding to queries of journalists, the Health Minister said that Punjab's testing capacity was increased manifolds and 18 BSL-3 labs were added taking the cumulative capacity from 20 to 25 thousand.

She said all necessary medicines and PPE had been provided in adequate numbers to the hospitals. "All health professionals have been directed to observe extra precautions," she added.

She said the government had specified some hospitals for COVID-19 patients and currently 61 patients were on ventilators in Mayo Hospital. The minister said that the closure of routine OPD services in first wave had affected a lot therefore the routine OPDs might continue as usual in the second wave.

She said vaccine might come in a few months till then all must comply with the SOPs as immune system was not at its full strength in winters.

She said the pandemic did not see any ethnic, racial and religious boundaries and politicians must lead people in times of crisis. She said that people like Bilawal could afford expensive healthcare facilities but a common man had nowhere to go except public sector hospitals.

She said that the government had hired 32,000 doctors through transparent process and distributed Sehat Insaf Cards among 5.2 million families.

"Prime Minister Imran Khan has granted approval to provide universal health coverage to all 22 million families of Punjab," she added.

She said that the appeal to stop public gatherings was made only to control the pandemic otherwise the government was not interested in stopping the political activities.

To a question on cases on re-infections, the minister said that complete research was being done on such cases by experts.