LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on Thursday said that partial lockdown will be imposed in the areas with 12 percent coronavirus positivity ratio from Apr 1 (today).

“Coronavirus is multiplying rapidly. Seven cities of the province have more than 12 percent COVID-19 positivity ratio. While, demand for oxygen has grown by seven percent at hospitals,” CM Buzdar said while addressing a press briefing in Lahore.

He said that the Punjab government would buy one million vaccines from its own resources and it had allocated Rs1.5 billion for this purpose. He said that more than one million doses of vaccines were already provided by the provincial government from its own resources.

The CM also said that the reason behind imposing the lockdown was not to shut down businesses, but the government wanted people to follow the COVID standard operating procedures.

Across Pakistan, 98 more deaths and 4,974 new cases of Coronavirus have been reported during the last twenty-four hours. 

According to the latest statistics issued by the National Command and Operation Center, death toll from the pandemic has risen to 14,530. There are 53, 127 active cases of the COVID-19 whereas 605, 274 patients have fully recovered from the infection.

Total 50,055 tests for the disease were conducting during the same period.