LAHORE: The coronavirus infections of British variant in the third wave are raging aggressively and within days touched the first wave’s last year June 17 peak with 21 per cent positivity rate in Lahore and 14pc in the province.

On June 17 last year when the first wave was massively spreading, as many as 215 patients were admitted to the ICUs of different hospitals in Punjab and almost similar number [214 patients] got admitted to the ICUs on Sunday.

Health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said the positivity rate in Lahore had touched 21pc and in Punjab 14pc.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Chief Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan says wearing face mask had been made compulsory for everyone and those violating would be fined and could be booked and sentenced to six months in jail.

Lahore touches June 17 last peak; 39 more die with 2,823 new infections

Meanwhile, the Punjab government on Sunday reported that coronavirus claimed 39 more lives during the past 24 hours taking the tally of total deaths in Punjab to 6,227 – around 900 deaths during the past one month.

Of 39 deaths, seven were reported from Lahore, five each from Faisalabad and Rawalpindi, three from Sialkot, two from Gujranwala and one each from Jhelum, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Sargodha and Sheikhupura.

As much as 2,823 new coronavirus cases have been reported in Punjab during the past 24 hours making the total Covid-positive patients to 212,918 cases in the province.

The highest number 1,725 new cases have been reported from Lahore besides 188 from Faisalabad, 149 from Rawalpindi, 124 from Multan, 89 from Gujranwala, 89 from Sialkot, 64 from Sheikhupura, 56 each from Sargodha and Khushab, 44 from Toba Tek Singh, 33 from Gujrat, 31 from Rahim Yar Khan, 25 from Bahawalpur and 20 from Sahiwal.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2021