COVID-19 statistics of Karachi call for precautionary measures: Murad Ali Shah

A total of seven more persons fell prey to coronavirus in Sindh, including four in Karachi, during the last 24 hours, said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in his video message on Tuesday.

He added that 335 more people had tested positive for the viral disease, including 267 people in Karachi alone.

Of the seven new victims, the CM said four belonged to Karachi. They included two women aged 24 and 66 and two men of 56 and 69 years. Two other men who were 56 and 66 years old lost their lives in Sukkur after contracting COVID-19 while a 66-year-old woman died in Matiari, the CM said.

Shah said that for the first time his government had conducted over 4,112 tests in 24 hours, against which 335 new cases emerged.

He said so far a total of 48,061 tests had been conducted in Sindh and 5,291 cases diagnosed. In this way, the infection ratio had come down from 12 per cent to 8.15 per cent, he maintained. “This is something encouraging but we have to take care of ourselves and of our families and other people.”

The CM said that after the seven recent casualties, the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Sindh had reached 92, which was 1.73 per cent of the total patients. He added that 38 more patients had recovered and returned to their homes, after which the number of recovered patients had climbed to 963.

The recovery rate has been recorded at 18.2 per cent, he said.

According to Shah, 4,236 patients are currently battling COVID-19, including 2,915 those who have been isolated at homes, 872 who have been admitted to isolation centers and 449 at various hospitals. He said 48 patients were in a critical state and 13 of them had been put on a ventilator.

Giving the district-wise break-up of the COVID-19 patients in Karachi, the CM said the city had 267 new cases. “At present, of 5,291 cases, 1,609 belong to Karachi, therefore it has to be contained.”

Shah said District South had 1,037 cases with 89 new ones, District East had 821 with 53 new ones, District Central had 655 cases with 43 new ones, District Malir had 312 cases with 21 new ones, District West had 392 cases with 24 new ones and District Korangi had 392 cases with 28 new ones. “This is not a good situation and every one of us will have to be careful,” he said.

Talking about other districts, the CM said that 17 new cases had been diagnosed in Hyderabad, 10 in Jacobabad, seven in Sukkur and Shikarpur each, six in Shaheed Benazirabad, six in Tando Mohammad Khan and five in Larkana.

He said the novel coronavirus had started to spread in rural areas. “Despite our serious efforts, people do not adopt social distancing, as a result they are not only getting infection but also infecting others,” he lamented.

Shah said he was setting up additional isolation centres. The capacity of the Expo Centre was being enhanced from 1,200 beds to 1,500, he explained and remarked that with the increase in the number of COVID-19 patients, expansion of isolation centres’ capacity was necessary so that patients from congested areas could be shifted there.