Coronavirus in Karachi: City continues to report high positivity

KARACHI: The alarm bells have started ringing as Karachi recorded a 19.65% COVID-19 positivity rate during the past 24 hours, making it the highest in the country.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s positivity rate stands at 3.19% as of Saturday.

As per the details, 1252 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours in the port city out of which 246 people returned positive taking the positivity ratio to 19.65%.

Following Karachi, the second-highest number of cases was recorded in Islamabad where the positivity was 4.04%. The capital city reported 50 new COVID-19 infections after 1,237 diagnostic tests were conducted during the same period. While, Hyderabad reported 11% positivity rate during the same period.

Meanwhile, the weekly positivity ratio of COVID-19 cases in Sindh was 4.51% while the rate in Karachi was 13.54%.

In addition to this, three people succumbed to COVID-19 during the current month.

In Sindh, the province’s positivity rate rose to 8.4% after 13,336 diagnostic tests were conducted during the last 24 hours. The province reported 280 fresh COVID-19 infections over the period.

Heath dept issues advisory for Karachi, Hyderabad

A day earlier, the Sindh Health Department issued an advisory to the commissioners of Karachi and Hyderabad, directing them to ensure the implementation of COVID-19 guidelines amid a sharp rise in new infections.

The letter referred to a meeting chaired by the Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to review the COVID-19 situation and stated that the increase in the number of cases can be partially attributed to BA4/BA5 Omicron sub-variants that have been recently reported in the country.

The health authorities directed the district administration to ensure the following standard operating procedures (SOPs):

• Mandatory wearing of face masks.
• Social distancing at public places.
• Crowd at weddings less than 300 for indoor events and 500 for outdoor.
• Checking of vaccination cards at high-risk areas including shopping malls, shrines, and gyms.
• Occupancy of passengers in public transport to be kept

The development comes as the two cities continue to report high positivity ratios which the experts have linked with increased air travel, waning of vaccine efficacy and non-implementation of SOPs.