Punjab likely to impose full lockdown in Lahore

From Abid Usman

LAHORE: The Punjab government has started considering imposing a complete lockdown in the provincial capital while it has been decided by the government to present recommendations in this regard at the NCOC (National Command Operation Center) meeting. According to details, a high-level meeting was held in the Chief Minister’s House under the chairmanship of Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid on the direction of Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar.
The Minister for Commerce and Industries Mian Aslam Iqbal, Punjab Chief Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik, Home Additional Chief Secretary Momin Agha, Department of Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Secretary Nabeel Awan, Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD) Secretary Sara Aslam, and Auqaaf secretary.
Other participants at the meeting were Lahore Commissioner Captain (r) Usman Younis, Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar, Additional Inspector General (IG) Sahibzada Shehzad Sultan, Higher Education secretary and other officials including all commissioners and regional police officers also participated through video link.
During the meeting, Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid reviewed the latest situation of coronavirus in the province whereas the SH&ME and P&SHD secretaries presented a detailed report on the latest situation of coronavirus in Punjab. All the commissioners presented a report on the implementation of Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) across the province and the concerned authorities presented various suggestions and recommendations for the prevention of coronavirus.
During the meeting, future strategies for the cities most affected by the coronavirus, working hours of vaccination centres during Ramadan and implementation of SOPs in mosques were reviewed.
According to details, it was decided in the cabinet committee meeting that in the first phase, a complete lockdown would be imposed in all the cities where the rate of positive cases of coronavirus is more than 15%. Similarly, in the 2nd phase, decisions will be taken to implement lockdown in cities with a rate of more than 10%. It was also learnt in the meeting that the rate of positive cases of Corona in Lahore has now reached 19 per cent.