KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah in a video message released from the CM House here on Tuesday said that for the first time, his government had conducted over 4,112 tests against which 335 new cases had emerged while seven more patients had succumbed to the COVID-19 infection.
He said that so far, 48,061 tests had been conducted against which 5,291 cases were detected as coronavirus. In this way, the infection ratio had come down from 12 per cent to 8.15 per cent. “This is something encouraging but we have to take care of ourselves, our families and other people,” he said.
Shah said that seven people died on Tuesday, thus the number of deaths stemming from coronavirus had reached 92 which constituted 1.73 per cent of the total patients.
“On the other hand, 38 more patients recovered and returned to their respective homes,” he said, adding the number of patients who had recovered so far had reached 963. The recovery rate is at 18.2 per cent,” he said.
According to Shah, 4,236 patients were under treatment, including 2,915 at home Isolation, 872 in Isolation Centers and 449 at different hospitals. He added that 48 patients were in critical condition and of them, 13 were on ventilators.
Giving district-wise break-up of the patients, the chief minister said that Karachi had 258 new cases.
“At present, out of 5,291 cases, 1609 belong to Karachi,” he said. Shah said that district South had 1,037 patients with 89 new, East 821 cases including 53 new, Central had 655 cases with 43 new, Malir 312 cases with 21 new, West 392 cases with 24 new and Korangi had 392 cases with 28 new cases. “This is not a good situation and every one of us will have to be careful,” he added.
Talking about other districts, the chief minister said that new 17 cases had been diagnosed in Hyderabad, 10 Jacobabad, seven Sukkur, seven Sikarpur, six Shaheed Benazirabad, six Tando Mohammad Khan and five Larkana.
He said that coronavirus had started spreading 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 deplored.
He said that he was developing additional Isolation Centers. “The capacity of the Expo Center is being enhanced from 1,200 to 1,500 beds, PAF Museum SITE will house 600 beds, Gadap City Hospital will have 150 beds, Dumba Goth Hospital will have 100 beds and Field Isolation Centers will also have 100 beds each,” he told.
