Daily Times

An anti-dengue drive, initiated by the district administration, is in full swing currently, under which surveillance is being carried out at various points in Lahore.

Deputy Commissioner Lahore Umar Sher Chatta visited Union Council (UC)-80 Sanda on Monday and inspected anti-dengue arrangements. He instructed the house-owners about dengue prevention measures. He inspected the attendance and performance of the anti-dengue squad, deputed on the field duty in the area.

All departments were working in a coordinated manner to make the anti-dengue campaign a success, he said.

He also inspected under-construction commercial buildings and workshops of the area. He directed the dengue teams deputed in the area to gear up pace of anti-dengue spray process. He said that four dengue cases had been reported during the last 24 hours and dengue larvae had been eliminated at 435 points. Around 262 warning notices had also been served over violation of anti-dengue laws. The DC said that 2,225 FIRs had also been registered in 2022 over violation of dengue prevention standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Meanwhile, as many as seven more dengue cases were reported in Potohar town Rawalpindi on Monday, raising the tally of confirmed cases to 86 in the district.

This was stated by District Coordinator Epidemics Prevention and Control (DCEPC), Dr Sajjad Mehmood. He informed that among the new cases, four were reported from Chak Jalaldin and one from Dhama Syedan, Kulail and Girja in the Potohar town area.

Dr Sajjad added that around 86 confirmed cases had been reported in the district this year, including 44 from Potohar town urban area, 13 from Kahutta, seven from Rawalpindi Cantonment, six from Municipal Corporation Rawalpindi, four from Chaklala Cantonment, two from Taxila Cantonment while one of each patient had arrived from Gujjar Khan, Taxila rural and Potohar rural areas. He further said that three cases were reported from outside districts in Rawalpindi. The health officer informed that surveillance was underway to detect the existence of dengue larvae while punishing actions were also taken against dengue SOPs violators.

Dr Sajjad said that the district administration had sealed 327 premises, registered 814 FIRs, issued Challans to 997, notices to 4,827, and a fine of Rs 2,697,000 was imposed on violations of SOPs in various areas of the district from January 1, 2022, till date. He added that prevailing weather was suitable for breeding dengue larvae and asked the concerned to remove stagnant water in outdoor and household settings to stop mosquitoes from breeding after rain and submerged water.

The health officer urged the residents to keep their water tanks clean and not to leave any place wet with stagnant water as the accumulation of water after the rain was a major cause of mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue fever.