289 new COVID-19 cases emerge in Sindh with 202 in Karachi

A bio-safety level-3 (BSL-III) lab has been established at the University of Karachi (KU) with financial assistance from the Sindh government to test samples of suspected patients of COVID-19 and other viral diseases.

This was stated by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in his routine video message on Thursday. He said the lab would initially be able to test 800 samples daily and later its capacity would be enhanced to 2,400 tests per day.

The CM said the National Institute of Virology at the KU’s International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) had been transformed into a COVID-19 testing facility. “For the purpose, a BSL-III lab has been completed and equipped with testing machines,” he said. The CM claimed that with the new lab, the government had established the largest public sector testing facility.

COVID-19 data

For the second consecutive day, there was a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 patients in Karachi, the CM said, adding that the situation warranted drastic measures.

He explained that a total of 298 new cases of coronavirus had emerged in Sindh on Thursday after 3,373 people were tested. “Of these 298 cases, 202 cases belong to Karachi,” he said. He maintained that so far 33,028 tests had been conducted and 3671 people had tested positive for COVID-19.

Four persons in Sindh succumbed to COVID-19 on Thursday, after which the death toll had reached 73, which was 1.98 per cent of the total cases, the CM said. He informed the people that 2,934 patients of coronavirus were currently under treatment, of whom 1,871 were in home isolation, 649 at isolation centres and 423 in hospitals.

Talking about Karachi, Shah said 202 new COVID-19 cases were detected in the city on Thursday, of which 67 were from District South, 79 from District Malir, 29 from District Central, 25 from District East, 19 from District Korangi and six from District West. At present, District Central has 436 cases, District East has 491, District Korangi has 250, District Malir has 234, District South has 646 and District West has 273 cases. “In this way, Karachi has 2,330 coronavirus positive cases,” he said.

Regarding other districts, the CM said Badin has 11 cases with two new ones, Dadu has 14 with two new cases, Ghotki has 122 with one new case and Hyderabad has 231 with no new case.

No new case was found in Jacobabad on Thursday and it has nine cases of the novel coronavirus. Jamshoro has 14 cases with no new case and Qambar-Shahdadkot has only one case. Khairpur has 166 cases after the addition of one new case; whereas, Larkana has 86 cases with 11 new ones. Matiari and Mirpurkhas districts have one and six cases respectively.

The coronavirus cases in Naushehro Feroze are 19 after the addition of five new cases while Sanghar has 19 cases with one new case. Shaheed Benazirabad has 82 cases with 10 new ones and Shikarpur has only six cases.

Sujawal has 11 cases with one new case and Sukkur has 363 with 25 new ones. Tando Allahyar and Tando Mohammad Khan have six and 33 cases respectively. Tharparkar, Thatta and Umerkot have so far four cases each. A total of 14 cases are being tracked, the CM said.

Stranded Pakistanis

Of those 913 Pakistanis that were finally able to come to Karachi after being stranded abroad, 98 had tested positive for COVID-19, Shah said, adding that 22 of them had been quarantined at Ramada while others were being treated at the Expo Centre and in Malir. He claimed that the Sindh government was taking proper care of Pakistanis returning to Karachi from abroad.

For members of the Tablighi Jamaat in Sindh, Shah said the government had so far traced 5,102 of them and all of them had been tested. “The results showed that 764 were positive, 4,321 negative while the result of 17 samples is yet to come,” he said.

On Wednesday, the CM had stated in his video message that 320 new cases of coronavirus had been diagnosed across the province within 24 hours, which was so far the highest number of new cases recorded in a single day.

Shah said Karachi continued to be the worst affected city of the province, as the number of local spread cases of the viral disease there had crossed 1,300. “This is not an ordinary situation, so we’ll have to handle it with extra care and attention.”

The CM explained that in Karachi Division, District South was the worst affected district and almost all the cases there were that of local spread. “Now this becomes the responsibility of the people, particularly the heads of families, religious scholars and other influential personalities, to guide the people to observe strict precautionary measures and social distancing, otherwise its further spread in thickly populated urban and rural areas will cause havoc there.”

He likened the precautionary measures with an umbrella that protects the people from rain. “Similarly, if you adopt precautionary measures even if the lockdown is eased off, you’ll be able to save yourself from infection,” he said.