Staff Reporter
Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid on Sunday said that the number of coronavirus patients in the City hospitals has decreased to an extent.
“Positive cases of Covid-19 are declining in Lahore, but rising in Gujranwala, which is also alarming. On April 25, there were 1,340 patients admitted in hospitals and today, it is 1,149.
Occupancy of oxygen beds was 72pc, and now it is 42pc,” the health minister said while addressing a press conference here.
The minister said that almost all ventilators in Gujranwala have been occupied, while the occupancy rate in Multan was 88 pct and in Lahore 81.5 per cent, adding that the health department was making efforts to shore up facilities.
The health minister said the ventilator occupancy rate in Multan stood at 88pc, followed by Sargodha at 80pc, Bahawalpur at 52pc, Dera Ghazi Khan at 39pc and Faisalabad at 38pc.
Health Minister She said that the government had provided 50 ventilators to public sector hospitals in Lahore.”
Rashid said that 280 beds had been added to the high dependency unit (HDU) at Lahore’s Expo Centre while 10 ventilators were also being added as a “backup option” in case the city’s hospitals were strained.
She clarified that there was no problem in meeting the province’s oxygen demands. ” The cabinet committee has given permission to get oxygen generators for the future,” the minister said.
“Our total vaccination centres right now are 135. We are adding seven more, three in Lahore and four in other big cities like Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala,” she said.
She revealed that the Punjab government had also started the bidding process for procuring vaccines which would be completed on May 11 and it was expected that the vaccines would be received in a month.
Meanwhile, Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid presided over a high-level meeting on Sunday held at Civil Secretariat.
Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat, Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht, senior members of revenue board, additional chief secretary, additional chief secretary home department and senior civil and military officers participated in the meeting.
The additional chief secretary home department, commissioner Lahore division and provincial secretary of health informed the meeting regarding the steps taken to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
The health minister said that there was no shortage of oxygen in the province. She said government ensured to provide oxygen in all hospitals of the province.
She said there was complete coordination with the private hospitals regarding Covid-19 treatment.
She informed that additional beds were being arranged in Expo Centre, Lahore as a precaution. She said 280 HDO beds were being arranged in the Expo Centre from today.
She said in case of shortage of space in hospitals, the corona patients would be shifted there.
She said in Gujranwala cases were rising and the government was providing ventilators to the city’s hospitals.
Ms Rashid said 16,846 corona tests were conducted in the province during the last 24 hours.
She said the Punjab government had banned all types of gatherings and processions. She said all indoor and outdoor social activities were outlawed. She said Covid restrictions would remain in place in areas showing 8% positivity ratio.
She said Punjab was leading in the vaccination rollout as 78,000 people were being inoculated daily. She informed the number of vaccination staff was increasing to speed up the inoculation process.
