LAHORE: Punjab is gradually heading towards a second wave of the Covid-19 as an upsurge has been witnessed in the confirmed cases of the virus across the province during the last 24 hours.

According to the official figures obtained on Sunday, 203 people tested positive in Punjab during the same period, the highest number since Aug 15 when the province had recorded 210 confirmed cases of the virus. Five critical patients of the Covid-19 died in Punjab during the last 24 days.

Lahore has, once again, appeared as the highest risk city where the virus is spreading fast as out of the total 203 new cases, 106 are from it, followed by Multan 16 and Faisalabad 10.

The health officials have warned, quoting some reports, cases may go up in the coming weeks mainly because of blatant violations of the standard operating procedures in the government offices, educational institutions, parks, markets, bazaars, tourism points and shopping malls. They say that following the same apprehensions recently, the Punjab government had enforced 856 ‘micro smart lockdowns’ in all the 36 districts of the province, restricting 7,295 citizens to their residences. The lockdowns were proposed following detection of 1,235 Covid-19 positive cases.

Smart lockdown to be enforced if two cases appear in a street, complete lockdown on 10 cases

Two micro smart lockdowns were proposed in Lahore with 520 patients and 123 in Rawalpindi over 177 positive cases.

A senior officer says a Punjab cabinet committee is going to meet on an emergent basis today (Monday) to review the Covid situation and the health dept would present its report in this regard.

Fearing a second wave of the coronavirus following a sudden surge in the number of positive cases, the official says, the Punjab government may move towards smart lockdowns and, in case of further spread of the virus, a complete lockdown option is also there. A detailed analysis of the situation is being prepared in this regard.

He says that in case of more than two confirmed cases of the virus in a street of any city, a smart lockdown would be enforced and on finding more than 10 such cases, there would be a complete lockdown as practised in the past during the peak time of the pandemic.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2020