Six govt hospitals in city to get 500 ICU, HDU beds

The Sindh chief minister has decided to provide 500 beds -- 72 for ICUs and 428 for high dependency units (HDUs) – at six government hospitals in the city in the coming weeks.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah made the decision on Friday as he chaired a meeting, which was attended by the provincial health minister, the chief, finance and health secretaries, Brigadier Sami of Corps 5, Dr Abdul Bari Khan of the Indus Hospital and others.

The beds have been provided to the Sindh government by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The chief minister said every government hospital situated in different localities of Karachi should have ICU and HDU wards.

In consultation with the health department and other experts, he approved the provision of 16 ICU and 64 HDU beds to the Sindh Government Hospital, Korangi 5, 20 ICU and 55 HDU beds to the Qattar Hospital, Orangi, 18 ICU and 57 HDU beds to the Sindh Government Hospital, Liaquatabad, 10 ICU and 65 HDU beds to the Sindh Government Hospital, Karachi, eight ICU and 34 HDU beds to the 50-beded hospital in the Metroville area, and 100 HDU beds to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Fifty-three HDU beds would be reserved for the buffer stock.

The chief minister also issued directives for the provision of necessary equipment to the Field Isolation Center at the Expo Centre.

17 more die

As many as 2,428 new cases of COVID-19 were detected and 17 people lost their lives due to the coronavirus infection in Sindh during the last 24 hours, Chief Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Friday.

“We have lost 17 more people due to COVID-19 during the last 24 hours in the province, while 2,428 people have tested positive for the viral infection in the province. Of these, 1,641 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Karachi alone,” he said in his daily situation report.

He said that overnight 11,356 tests, the highest in Pakistan, were conducted, which detected 22 per cent positive results or 2,428 new cases. So far, 227,054 samples had been tested, which produced 49,256 cases that constituted

18 per cent positive results, he said.

Shah noted that Sindh had seen 793 deaths from the coronavirus so far, including 17 reported within the last 24 hours. He added that the death rate had been recorded at 1.6 per cent.

According to the chief minister, 25,350 patients are under treatment, and of them 23,615 are in home isolation, 79 at isolation centers and 1,656 at different hospitals. “I am sorry to disclose that 530 patients are in critical condition, and 83 of them have been shifted onto ventilators,” he said.

He said 1,066 more patients had recovered and had been discharged from hospitals, and now the number of patients who had recovered from COVID-19 had reached 23,113, which showed a 47 per cent recovery rate.

Karachi cases

The chief minister said that out of the 2,428 coronavirus cases reported in the past 24 hours, 1,641 belonged to Karachi: 571 in District East, 351 in South, 265 in Central, 207 in West, 176 in Malir and 125 in District Korangi.

He added that Karachi being a densely populated city of the country was the worst affected; therefore, people of this city would have to take extra precautionary measures.

Talking about other districts of the province, Shah said Ghotki reported 66 new cases, Hyderabad 64, Sukkur 47, Khairpur 38, Larkana 31, Jacobabad 26, Dadu 20, Nawabshah and Sanghar 17 each, Jamshoro 14, Kambar nine, Kashmore, Mirpurkhas and Thatta seven cases each, Tando Mohammad Khan three and Umerkot two cases.

He said the coronavirus had also badly affected Ghotki, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Khairpur and Larkana. “All these cases are of local transmission and this could be stopped with the support of the people of the area; otherwise, controlling

it would be quite difficult,” he said.

The CM urged the people to follow standard operating procedures, wear masks and avoid social gathering.