Punjab health minister confirms 24 Delta variant cases in Lahore

The possible presence of Delta variant in the city poses a serious threat to the Lahorites.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – Concerns of a fourth wave of coronavirus in Pakistan have grown amid the emergence of the Delta variant – a strain of the virus first identified in neighboring India – in Lahore.

The possible presence of Delta variant in the city poses a serious threat to the Lahorites. Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has confirmed 24 Delta variant cases in Lahore.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Punjab health department has processed 28 Covid-19 samples for genome sequencing, suspecting the presence of Delta variant in the provincial capital.

Picked up from the government teaching hospitals of Lahore, including Mayo, Services and Jinnah, the samples were of the people carrying typical symptoms of Delta virus.

On the other hand, earlier nine members of a family in Karachi had been affected by the Indian Delta variant of the coronavirus.

According to sources, the affected persons including a couple and their children residents of Malir area of Karachi have been admitted at the High Dependency Unit (HDU) at the Lyari Hospital.

According to In Charge of Lyari Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Professor Injum Rehman, all possible medical facilities were being provided to the affected persons and the staff at the hospital had been asked to be on extra alert to deal with the situation.

He further informed that all 42 ventilators of the ICU ward have been occupied by the coronavirus patients while 100 beds out of total 130 in the HDU of the hospital have been occupied.

Professor Injum Rehman has also appealed the people to adhere to the COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs to contain further spread of the novel coronavirus.