LAHORE – Punjab government has likely to extend lockdown till May 24 amid fears of coronavirus spread in the most populous province in Pakistan.
The top provincial authorities have been mulling to extend lockdown for another week, May 16 to May 24, which was previously imposed to restrict movement during Eid ul Fitr holidays.
Reports in mainstream media suggest that ‘a consensus has been made among the Punjab authorities that extending the lockdown for another week would further improve the situation in the province’.
Although, a final decision on extending lockdown would be made during a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) – the country’s nerve centre in the fight against the novel virus.
On the other hand, restrictions during the Eid festive have slashed the rising trend as a sharp decline has been reported in recent days. Pakistan on Saturday (today) reported 1,531 new covid-19 infection and 83 deaths during the past 24 hours.
Pakistan records decline in Covid-19 with 1,531 new cases in a day
US epidemiologist Dr Fahim Younis, a fellow at the University of Maryland, claimed that the rate of new coronavirus cases has declined by 61 per cent of the peak cases during the recent lockdown.
Moreover, there are 11 infections per 100,000 people reported in the last few days. He suggested that Pakistan should further reduce this number to less than five out of 100,000 people and speed up the vaccination process.
