25 more doctors tested COVID-19 positive in Pak's Punjab province

Twenty five more doctors and nurses were tested coronavirus positive on Tuesday in Pakistan's worst-hit Punjab province, bringing the number of the medical staff infected by the deadly virus in the country to 140. According to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) Lahore Chief Executive Officer Dr Saqib Shafi, the samples of 450 medics, including doctors and nurses, working at the PIC were sent for lab tests after a surgeon was infected with the deadly virus.

"On Tuesday, 25 of them (six doctors, 12 nurses and seven paramedics) were tested coronavirus positive. They are quarantined in the hospital," Dr Shafi said. According to officials, so far 140 doctors, nurses and paramedics have been infected across the country mostly in Punjab province.

Meanwhile, the young doctors’ protest entered the fifth day on Tuesday against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government for not providing them required protective gear. The Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition of the Young Doctors Association seeking direction for the government to provide protective kits to medics.

On the other hand, the number of prisoners tested COVID-19 positive rose to 100 on Tuesday in the prisons of worst-hit Punjab province.

A Punjab government spokesman said that the number of infected inmates in Punjab jails has reached 100. He said tests of some 500 more suspected prisoners have been taken and its results are awaiting. Opposition PML-N has made an appeal to the government to release Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz from Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail so that he might not contract the disease.

"Only in Lahore’s two jails around 50 inmates have been infected. Therefore, we appeal to the authorities concerned to release Hamza, son of PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, from jail on humanitarian grounds,” PML-N lawmaker Azma Bokhari said. Hamza has been in the custody of the anti-graft body in money laundering and income beyond means cases. On Tuesday, the tally of COVID-19 confirmed cases climbed to 9,500 with 197 deaths in Pakistan.

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