Lahore: With 29 new cases, Punjab has surpassed Sindh with 490 confirmed coronavirus cases as the national tally eclipses 1,300.
According to Punjab health department, 207 cases have been detected in pilgrims at DG Khan quarantine centre, 46 in Multan and 105 in Lahore, 22 in Gujrat, 19 in Jhelum and 14 cases have been reported in Rawalpindi. So far, four coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in the province.
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has directed that all shops in the province, including grocery stores, would be closed from 8pm to 8am starting from Saturday. He ordered strict monitoring of the “coronavirus hotspots” and implementation of SOPs for ‘sensitive areas’.
Other cities, where the virus cases had been confirmed include Gujranwala, Faislabad, Rahimyar Khan, Narowal, Mandi Bahauddin, Sargodha, Attock, Bahawalnagar, Khushab and Mianwali.
Earlier, Sindh had reported the highest number of novel virus with 440 confirmed cases. The highest number of patients in Sindh are in Sukkur, where 265 people are infected, followed by 164 virus cases in Karachi, three in Hyderabad, one in Dadu and seven in Larkana.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa health department in its advisory confirmed four new coronavirus cases in the province on Friday evening, raising the provincial tally to 180. It said Mardan was the worst-affected with 79 cases.
In Balochistan, the tally has reached to 131, as more tests of patients came positive. It said that two patients had cured the disease in the province.
