6-month jail for not wearing masks in Lahore as COVID-19 cases surge

Lahore administration on Saturday began enforcing the strict penalties, including up to six months’ imprisonment, for failing to wear face masks in public as Pakistan battles with the third wave of the pandemic.

Captain (retd) Mohammad Usman, the commissioner of Lahore, said that violators will be put behind the bars and cases will be registered against them.

He said that district administration and Lahore police will take action against the people not wearing face masks at public places.

At least 67 people lost their lives due to the third wave of the novel coronavirus infection while 4,468 fresh cases have reported in the last 24 hours, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said Saturday.

According to the latest figures, the death toll has surged to 14,158 while the number of confirmed cases stands at 649,824.

In the past 24 hours, as many as 2,137 patients have recovered from the novel virus while the total recoveries stand at 593,282. The total count of active cases is 42,384 and the positivity rate stands at 10.09 percent.

At least 264,335 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 210,095 in Punjab 83,630 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 55,056 in Islamabad, 19,453 in Balochistan, 12,245 in Azad Kashmir, and 4,990 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Moreover, 6,190 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab 4,487 in Sindh, 2,274 in KP, 557 in Islamabad, 342 in Azad Kashmir, 205 in Balochistan, and 103 in Gilgit Baltistan.

A total of 44,279 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours while 10,021,07 samples have been tested so far.