LAHORE: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Thursday said that 19 districts in Punjab, which had earlier reported COVID-19 cases, have now become coronavirus-free.

Talking to media in Sialkot, she announced the establishment of a new 200-bed hospital in the city. The project will be completed at a cost of Rs4.5 million.

“The coronavirus outbreak in Punjab is now under control. Nineteen districts of Punjab are now virus-free,” she said.

Dr. Yasmin Rashid announced that seven more maternity hospitals across the province will be established during the current year and PC-1 has been approved for Maternity Hospital Sialkot.
Provincial health minister Yasmin Rashid further said that the government has raised the salaries of doctors, nurses and issued 5 million health cards to the people.

Speaking about the daily coronavirus cases, Punjab health minister said that province reported 203 news cases in the past 24 hours, taking the ‘s Covid-19 tally to 92,655.

Punjab has also reported five additional fatalities from the virus, taking the total to 2,138, she added.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country reported 1,114 new novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally of cases to 277,402.

According to the latest figures released by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 32 deaths were also reported due to the virus in the last 24 hours. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 5,924.

Pakistan has so far conducted 1,952,730 coronavirus tests and 21,628 in past 24 hours. 246,131 coronavirus patients have recovered in the country so far.