Pakistani authorities introduced mobile clinics and added more beds in hospitals to treat the nearly 70,000 patients received daily with respiratory-related diseases as hazardous smog continued to shroud the country's east, officials said Wednesday.
Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province with 127 million residents, has been hit by a record-high ongoing wave of pollution since October. The UN children's agency on Monday warned that the health of 11 million children there was at risk.
Lahore and Multan, the province's two main cities hit by smog, remained the two most polluted cities in the world on Wednesday, with air quality index readings of about 400, according to the Environmental Protection Department. Anything over 300 is considered hazardous to health.
The dangerous smog is a byproduct of large numbers of vehicles, construction and industrial work as well as burning crops at the start of the winter wheat-planting season, experts say.
Meanwhile, more than 200 clinics on boa