KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that coronavirus hit a new high on Tuesday with 19 patients losing their lives in Sindh, which is the highest number since the first death reported on March 19.
“The 19 deaths within 24 hours are the highest number since the first death was reported on March 19 and now Sindh has a total of 299 deaths stemming from the coronavirus which constitutes 1.6 per cent of the total patients,” he said in his statement issued from the CM House on Tuesday.
Shah said that from March 19 to May 19, which mean the last two months, they had been taking more than five bodies on average per day. “Though the death ratio stands at 1.6 per cent of the total patients yet, we have taken 299 bodies with 61 days which is quite painful,” he deplored.
He said that at present, 135 patients were in critical condition, of them 34 had been put on ventilators. “May Allah helps them to recover at the earliest,” he said.
Talking about 12,906 patients, Shah said that 11,373 or 88 per cent were at home isolation, 819 at isolation centres and 715 or 5.7 per cent at different hospitals.
He added that he was happy to disclose that 252 more patients had recovered from the infection, the number of the patients who had recovered so far had reached 4,741, which means a 27 per cent recovery ratio.
The chief minister said 706 new patients were detected when 3803 samples were tested.
“On the one hand, our 252 patients have recovered while another 706 have emerged which means despite discharging 252 patients, 454 other were admitted,” he said and added that these figures showed that the recovery rate was much lower than the infection rate and this rate could be controlled when everyone would follow the SOPs.
He said that so far, the government had tested 131,376 samples against which 17,947 positive cases were diagnosed.
“The overall percentage of positive cases of the totals tests stands at 13.7 per cent which is higher than various other countries ratio,” he said.
Talking about Karachi, Shah said that out of 706 new cases, 558 alone belong to Karachi. “These cases include 134 South, 131 East, 105 Central, 72 West, 58 Malir and 58 Korangi. Karachi, as usual, is on the top in the local spread,” he said.
He said that they had 20 new cases in Hyderabad, 16 Larkana, 12 Kambar-Shahdadkot, 10 Jamshoro, six each in Shikarpur and Sukkur, five Khairpur, four Jacobabad, three each in Mirpurkhas, two each in Dadu, Ghotki and Kashmore while each one in Badin, Tando Allahyar and Naushehro Feroze.
According to the chief minister, three flights from Washington, Mascut and Jeddah brought in 792 stranded Pakistanis to Karachi on May 14, 15 and 16 respectively. They all were tested as a result, 60 of them came positive while the results of 17 passengers were being awaited.
The chief minister once again urged the people to follow SOPS and avoid going out of home without any solid reason.
