Over 600,000 coronavirus patients likely in Lahore: Health Dept

LAHORE (92 News) – Over 600,000 coronavirus patients are likely in Lahore, according to a summary forwarded by the Punjab Health Department to Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar. The summary was prepared on the basis of smart sampling and random sampling. “Under directions of the Punjab government and technical assistance of the Working Group, the Health Department initiated smart sampling project to detect and determine spread of COVID-19 and to structure and guide its response towards its containment,” says the summary. “With the results of sampling exercises, a worrisome picture of the COVID-19 prevalence in the communities is emerging i.e. positivity rate at 5.18% in RTS and 6.01% in SS (both by RT-PCR) respectively. The results of the tests from Lahore shoes that 6% of all tested were positive with few towns showing positivity as high as 14.7%. Considering this sample as a true representative of Lahore's population (11.18 million), the actual new cases during this exercise in Lahore are estimated at 670,800,” it stated. The town-wise break-up shows a value of more than 3% for all towns, except Wagha Town, and ranges between 2.11 to 9.33%, thereby, refuting the justification of zoning and smart lockdown. “This means that no workplace and residential area of any town is disease-free and, as such, entire Lahore exhibits an alarmingly similar transmission pattern,” the summary pointed out. It is also notable, according to the summary, that while looking at the ageing break up, the most seriously hit age group is above 50 years.