In an effort to curtail the rapidly escalating COVID-19 situation, Punjab province Lahore have decided to impose a complete lockdown on Saturdays and Sundays in the city. The announcement was made by Commissioner Lahore Division Muhammad Usman on Friday, who said that part of the complete lockdown entailed that businesses and markets across the city will remain closed, as per sources who told a leading business daily.

As the third wave, fuelled by the UK variant, continued to spiral out of control in the province, Punjab govt announced that the step is being taken to save lives as COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the country and the Punjab province.

Only the medical stores, petrol pumps and vaccination centres will remain open during the weekends.

The Punjab Cabinet under Chief Minister Usman Buzdar expressed concern over the rising COVID-19 infections and presented a consensus proposal to enforce a complete lockdown before Eid in Lahore and other cities with more infections, reported Geo News. A special cabinet committee will finalise recommendations after reviewing the proposal of complete lockdown to submit the same to NCOC.

The meeting discussed that the positive cases' ratio is more than 8 percent in 23 districts and the number of patients has been tremendously increased in areas including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and more.

Lahore reported 1,086 while 30 more people succumbed to the disease in the provincial capital, according to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department. The country has a total of 8,20,823 infections and 17,811 deaths.

'Don't line up for vaccine from tomorrow, we don't have vaccine' - Arvind Kejriwal

2 lakh rupees raised by 10th standard girl students, oximeters distributed in trains

2.45 crore people registered so far as 18+ people are enthusiastic about vaccination