A letter regarding anticipated two week lockdown started circulating across social media platforms. According to letter, the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) has asked the provincial governments to prepare for a two-week-long lockdown in 20 major districts in early May.
According to the circular issued by the coronavirus monitoring body, the districts with high disease prevalence are the ones that would face the restrictions. In the letter to the Ministries of Industries and Production, the recipient is “requested to carry out necessary planning.”
However, Nasim Zehra was first media person on the twitter who reported that the letter is fake and the NCOC is not imposing a two week lockdown.
Acc to NCOC sources both letter announcing lockdown and subsequently calling off lockdown are fake . Strange why NCOC wouldn’t issue the same from its official social media accounts .
— Nasim Zehra (@NasimZehra) April 28, 2021
According to the reportedly fake letter, the cities and districts where the prospective lockdown is to be imposed from 2/3 May, are Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Dir Lower, Mardan, Nowshera, Malakand, Charsadda, Swat, Swabi, Muzaffarabad, Sudhnuti, Poonch and Bagh.
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This update comes at a time when the country has seen the highest number of deaths caused by the novel coronavirus over a period of 24 hours ever since the pandemic hit the country last year. The graph below shared by Former State Minister of Health of Pakistan, Mr. Zafar Mirza is the attestation to this fact.
According to NCOC, During the past 24 hours, 201 people succumbed to the virus, taking the national death toll to 17,530. 49,101 people were tested across the country in 24 hours, taking the total number of people tested to 11,682,014.
The curve of the coronavirus is rising steeply since the last couple of weeks, and the number of deaths has risen to an all-time high with a very steep increase in deaths.
The positivity ratio in Pakistan 10.77 percent in the last 24 hours, up from 10.20 percent on the previous day. The number of positive cases remained high at 5292 cases on 27th April.
Statistics 28 April 21:
Total Tests in Last 24 Hours: 49,101
Positive Cases: 5292
Positivity % : 10.77%
Deaths : 201— NFRCC (@NFRCCofficial) April 27, 2021
Health authorities across the country are requesting the government to implement nationwide lockdown as the burden of the weak health sector of Pakistan is rising every day. The two-week-long lockdown is a step in that direction as Eid Festival approaches.
In a ray of hope during a time of adversity, Daily vaccination in Pakistan crossed 0.1 million yesterday for the first day since the vaccination process began. A total of 2.1 million people in Pakistan has been vaccinated to date.
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The head of NCOC, Asad Umar, also encouraged people aged more than 40 to register as the registration for the 40+ age group started on 27th April.