LAHORE: A summary leaked from the Punjab government has revealed worrying numbers related to the Coronavirus situation, creating chaos in the provincial capital. The summary highlighted that the actual number of infections is estimated at over 670,000. and that no area or town of Lahore is virus-free while in some localities, the positivity rate was above 14 percent.
The summary which was prepared by the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department on 15th May showed that the department had carried out Randomized Target Sampling (RTS) and Smart Sampling (SS) to get an accurate picture of the prevalence of the virus in different areas of the city.
The summary also suggested that the government must impose a strict lockdown to prevent further outbreak of the deadly virus.
In an interview with Voicepk.net, Musarrat Cheema, the spokesperson for the Punjab government said that the summary was being misinterpreted by a section of the media. She said it was the government’s internal exercise to assess the prevalence of the virus so that a better strategy could be formulated to combat the pandemic. She added that the results of the sample testing were not meant to be made public.
“When you are monitoring things in such a situation then you have to discuss worst-case scenarios but to the public, we can only give the real situation,” she said.
Cheema did warn the public that Punjab was yet to hit its peak and that everyone should take the disease very seriously otherwise the situation may get out of hand.
“Coronavirus is the writing on the wall,” she added. “One should accept it as soon as possible. Those who are making fun of it, they are making a huge mistake – they are putting their own and other people’s lives at stake.”
She also denied the reports that public sector hospitals have been overburdened and the staff is turning away the patients. But, she advised people to strictly act upon the SOPs because if the number of positive cases continues to increase then the number of beds and ventilators can be outnumbered soon.