LAHORE : An advisory board has cautioned the provincial government over resurgence of novel coronavirus cases in Punjab. According to sources, the board has informed provincial government about disappointing results of random tests to detect COVID-19 cases in the province. “The board has warned that the pandemic could spread rapidly in the province if the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) would not enforce strictly,” according to the sources. The Punjab government mulling over ban on public gatherings in view of the situation. Chief Minister of Punjab has summoned a meeting of the cabinet committee for prevention of coronavirus, which will take final decision over enforcement of Article 144 to ban public gatherings, according to sources.
The cabinet committee session will also consult over the situation of schools. The meeting will also discuss imposing ban on the marriage halls again, sources said. The cabinet committee will also consider crackdown over violation of SOPs in schools and other concerned matters. Fourteen more people died from coronavirus-related complications in the country over the past 24 hours, taking the death toll from the disease to 6,601.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 471 fresh infections surfaced when 28,022 samples were tested during this period, lifting the national tally of cases to 320,463. So far, Sindh has reported 140,756 cases, Punjab 101,014, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 38,427, Balochistan 15,577, Islamabad 17,526, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 3,198, and Gilgit Baltistan 3,965. On October 13, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar had stressed that the implementation of precautionary measures is vital to ward off the possible second wave of the novel coronavirus. NNI
