Residential complexes in Karachi’s outskirts, Nooriabad to house COVID-19 patients

On the recommendations from infectious diseases experts, the Sindh government has started to transform two residential complexes located in an outskirt of Karachi and Nooriabad Industrial Area into ‘mass quarantine facilities’ to keep the confirmed patients of coronavirus in isolation as well as the suspected patients to slow down the spread of COVID-19 in various cities of Sindh.

Similarly, recently-constructed residential complexes in Nawabshah and Larkana cities in Sindh are also being equipped with basic facilities of life to house hundreds of confirmed and suspected patients of coronavirus after infectious diseases’ experts expressed the fear that an exponential growth could be seen in the COVID-19 cases in Sindh where 208 people have so far tested positive for the viral illness.

“On the recommendations from leading infectious diseases experts from Aga Khan University Hospital, Dow University of Health Sciences and Indus Health Network, we have started preparing mass quarantine and isolation sites in Sindh including Karachi, Nooriabad, Nawabshah, and Larkana on the pattern of Sukkur,” an official of the Sindh government told The News on Wednesday.

The official maintained that they were preparing these facilities to house at least 10,000 people as the ‘exponential growth’ of COVID-19 cases had started in Sindh, adding that so far, 208 people had tested positive for the viral disease after 36 more people were found having been infected with the disease in the province.

“We are renovating and preparing separate residential apartments for confirmed COVID-19 cases where one person would be kept in an apartment while two or three suspects would be housed in different rooms of an apartment at these mass quarantine facilities,” the official said.

Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani along with Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani and Malir Deputy Commissioner Shahzad Fazal Abbasi on Wednesday visited a recently-constructed apartment complex on the Northern Bypass and examined the apartments being equipped with facilities so that suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19 could be shifted there in case of mass transmission of the disease in the province.

The labour minister and city administration officials also examined the building of a small hospital and an educational institute.

They decided to make the health facility functional so that those requiring medical treatment could be shifted there, and directed the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board and other departments to expedite work on providing basic facilities like water and power at the facility.

Talking to The News during his visit to the mass quarantine facility, Ghani said the Sindh government had started preparing these facilities in the entire province including Karachi, Nooriabad, Nawabshah and Larkana to keep at least 10,000 confirmed and suspected COVID-19 people. He, however, expressed the hope that the situation would remain under control and these facilities would not be required to keep such a large number of people.

“But we are preparing for the worst case scenario and on the recommendations of experts, we have decided to make arrangements. This housing complex in the city outskirts is far away from the population and it has the capacity for keeping at least 6,000 people in quarantine. We are planning to use it for both the confirmed and suspected cases,” the minister said.

He explained that generators had been transported to the residential complex for electricity and water would be provided there through water tankers and authorities would provide food, water and medicine to people who would be kept in isolation at the facility. “We are also making a small hospital at the facility functional so that people requiring immediate medical help could be provided treatment,” he added.