LAHORE, APR 10 (DNA) – The Punjab government has prepared standard operating procedures (SOPs) for isolation at home and hinted at implementing them on appropriate time.

In a statement on Friday, Provincial Minister for Health Dr Yasmin Rashid has said that the Chinese doctors have advised to keep coronavirus patients at hospital instead of home.

Dr Yasmin Rashid maintained that ventilators in large numbers are available at hospitals and only seven patients are in critical condition at the moment.

Dr. Yasmin Rashid has said that the lockdown has led to a decrease in new cases of the novel coronavirus in the province. “We have seen a decrease in the number of new infections after the lockdown,” said Yasmin Rashid.

Commenting over plasma therapy to treat coronavirus patients, she said that Punjab is ready to use the plasma of coronavirus patients for the treatment of newly-confirmed patients. Earlier, Dr Yasmin Rashid said Lahore has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Punjab while the situation in South Punjab is less severe.

The Minister said that patients in Mayo hospitals are being treated using Hydroxychloroquine. She said that younger patients are recovering in greater numbers because of stronger immune system.

She expressed satisfaction on the effectiveness of lockdown in the province saying that it was imposed in time and helped to curb the spread of the virus, but noted that the situation in Pakistan was, thankfully, under control.

Shedding light on the number of cases in the province, she said that Lahore has reported the most cases while Gujranwala also has a high number of cases and Gujrat has 98 cases. Out of all reported cases, 1430 are either pilgrims from Iran or belong to Tableeghi Jamat.

Dr. Yasmin, while talking on the topic of plasma, said that plasma is drawn from patients after they test negative for the virus and it could prove to be most useful for patients in critical condition. She said that the government is working on using plasma systematically and is compiling a list of the recovered patients. = DNA

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