Lahore’s Defence and Cantt report majority COVID-19 cases

By
Benazir Shah
|

Majority of the coronavirus cases being reported in Lahore are from the upscale Defence and Cantt areas of the city, revealed an official of Punjab’s provincial disaster management authority.

As of March 29, there are a total of 116 cases of the virus in Lahore. Of which, 28 people have tested positive at a complex of the religious group, Tablighi Jamaat, in the Raiwind area of Lahore.

Earlier this month, hundreds of thousands of people from across the country gathered for a five-day annual congregation in the city, despite government warnings that the gathering could spark a spread of the deadly infection.

While, the congregation was later cut short, on the government’s insistence, still, over a 100 people remain at the complex to date, out of which 28 have contracted the virus and are now quarantined by the Punjab government.

“Besides Raiwind, the most number of positive cases are emerging from the Defence and Cantt area of Lahore,” Nisar Ahmed, director operations at the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), told Geo.tv. “These people from the posh areas usually have a travel history. Also, they are stubbornly continuing their kitty parties even today and not following social distancing rules.”

Meanwhile, according to provincial government daily statistics, seen by Geo.tv, of those tested positive in the city, six people are “not traceable”. However, Ahmed rubbishes the information: “I don’t think that is true.” He adds that the Punjab government is using cellphone data and artificial intelligence to track people, once they arrive in the province.

“We can trace the movements of each one of the 11 million people in Lahore,” he said, “Anyone who leaves the airport, we know exactly where there they went, where they stopped and for how many minutes. This state-of-the-art technology is being used in Punjab for the first time.”