Experts at KU raise alarm as Covid-19 kills eight more

Eight more people have died due to Covid-19 and 653 others have tested positive for the disease during the past 24 hours in Sindh, with the death toll due to the viral coronavirus infection reaching 4,541 in the province.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said in his daily situation report on the health emergency on Thursday that 12,982 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, resulting in 653 people, or over five per cent of those who were screened, being diagnosed with Covid-19.

The provincial government has so far conducted 3,438,513 tests, which have resulted in 270,962 positive cases. The CM said 7,033 patients across Sindh are currently infected: 6,670 are in self-isolation at home, 12 at isolation centres and 351 at hospitals, while 324 patients are in critical condition, of whom 38 are on life support.

He added that 389 more people have recovered during the past 24 hours, increasing the number of cured patients to 259,388, which shows the recovery rate to be 95.7 per cent.

The CM said that out of the 653 fresh cases of Sindh, 383 (or 59 per cent) have been reported in Karachi Division alone.

‘More serious’

Dr Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine & Drug Research (PCMD) at the University of Karachi’s International Centre for Chemical & Biological Sciences (ICCBS) reported that the third wave of Covid-19 is becoming more serious due to the sharp increase of the highly contagious UK and South African variants in Pakistan.

ICCBS Director and Comstech Coordinator General Prof Dr M Iqbal Choudhary warned that the situation may slip out of control if immediate measures are not taken to address the looming disaster.

He made these remarks while reviewing Covid-related research projects at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) and the Jamil-ur-Rahman Centre for Genome Research of the PCMD.

He said that a recent study at the NIV revealed that around 50 per cent of the Covid-positive cases are due to the UK variant while 25 per cent due to the South African variant.

In the backdrop of massive violations of coronavirus-related standard operating procedures across the country, these variants have the potential to sweep a major chunk of the population within a short period, he added.