50-bed health facility for COVID-19 patients on University Road to start functioning tomorrow

The 50-bed Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) near NIPA Chowrangi on University Road will be operational by tomorrow (Friday) as another health facility in the city for COVID-19 patients. 

Meanwhile, 29 more people lost their lives due to the viral disease in the province during the last 24 hours, said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in his daily statement on Wednesday about the epidemic situation in the province.

“We have lost 29 more patients due to COVID-19 in the province in last 24 hours, of whom 24 people died in Karachi alone. Of the 29 deaths, 10 were female patients. Now the death toll due to COVID-19 stands at 1,406,” the CM said.

Shah, along with provincial health minister Dr Azra Pechuho, also visited the 50-bed hospital on University Road, examined its various departments and announced that the health facility would be functional from Friday for COVID-19 patients.

He said that another 8,201 samples had been tested, against which 2,139 new cases of the novel coronavirus infection had been detected that constituted a 28 per cent detection rate, one of the highest rates so far. He added that so far 461,587 samples had been tested in the province, which resulted in the diagnosis of 86,139 cases of COVID-19 all over Sindh that formed a 19 per cent overall detection rate.

Shah explained that after the 29 more patients, the number of COVID-19 patients who had died so far in Sindh had reached 1,406 with the mortality rate of 1.6 per cent.

He added that a total of another 1,703 patients of COVID-19 had recovered during 24 hours, after which the number of cured patients so far had come to 48,527, which constituted the recovery rate of 56 per cent.

According to the CM, currently, 36,803 patients are battling COVID-19, of whom 35,131 are in home isolation, 158 at the isolation centres and 1,514 at different hospitals. A total of 707 patients were in a critical state and 104 among them had been shifted onto the ventilators.

Providing the district-wise data of new cases of the viral disease, Shah said that of the 2,139 new cases, 1,483 belonged to Karachi. Of them, 401 belonged to District East, 258 to District South, 125 to District Central, 101 to District Korangi, 82 to District Malir and 71 belonged to District West.

He added that Hyderabad had 129 new cases, Sukkur 86, Shikarpur 70, Sanghar 66, Larkana 58, Shaheed Benazirabad 50, Mirpurkhas 36, Ghotki 31, Badin 29, Dadu 24, Jacobabad 24, Jamshoro 12, Naushehro Feroz 10, Khairpur nine, Matiari eight, Sujawal five, Kashmore three, and Tando Allahyar, Tando Mohammad Khan and Thatta districts had one new case each.

The CM urged the people of Sindh to stay safe by observing all the standard operating procedures notified by the Sindh government.

During his visit to the IDH on University Road, Shah examined the double-storey health story having a six-bed intensive care unit and a high dependency unit. He visited each and every ward and witnessed operations of the radiology department, ventilators and IT unit.

The hospital was previously the dental hospital of the Dow University, which has now been converted into the IDH by the CM who released necessary funds for the purpose.

Shah directed the Sindh health department to post well-trained healthcare staff in the hospital and make it functional on Friday. “This hospital will be of great help to treat COVID-19 patients, even if any of them need only oxygen support or ventilators,” he said and added that the radiology department at the facility would also help save the lives of serious patients by diagnosing their chest complications.

“This is the best facility that offers complete health care to the COVID-19

patients,” he said.