Virus tally, deaths soar ever higher in Sindh

38 more people die of coronavirus, 1,247 fresh cases reported

KARACHI: Revealing on Saturday that 38 more people had died due to the novel coronavirus in Sindh while 1,247 new cases had been reported in the past 24 hours, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah expressed worry that the pandemic situation was going from bad to worse.

With the 69 deaths reported on Friday and Saturday, the death toll in Sindh has reached 465, while the total number of coronavirus cases has soared to 27,360.

The CM stated that 5,481 tests were conducted, of which 1,247 resulted positive - around 23 per cent of the tested samples, which was significantly higher than the overall average of 15.5 per cent of 176,703 samples tested to date.

Shah also voiced concern over the increasing death ratio, while disclosing that 310 patients were in critical condition and 68 of them had already been shifted to ventilators.

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On the other hand, 522 patients had recovered from the contagious disease, taking the number of recovered individuals in Sindh to 13,272, with a recovery ratio of around 48.5 per cent.



"Now, the situation is a little worrisome as there is a wide difference between the newly-infected and recovered individuals, which is putting the provincial health system under stress," he stated.

The chief minister shared that currently, 13,623 patients were under treatment, of which 12,565 were in home isolation, 931 were being treated in different hospitals, while 127 patients were quarantined at isolation centres.

"We are expanding our facilities by establishing two infectious disease hospitals, one at NIPA and the other opposite to Karachi University," he claimed, adding that the work was nearing completion and necessary equipment was being installed at the health facilities.

Discussing the state of the pandemic in the provincial capital, he shared that 923 cases were diagnosed in the metropolis on the day. Moreover, he said, Korangi district had seen the highest number of cases with 215 new patients, while East district had 213, Central had 183, South had 180, Malir had 63 and the West district saw 69 new cases.

Meanwhile, 29 more people tested positive for coronavirus in Ghotki, 24 in Hyderabad, 23 in Larkana, 22 in Jacobabad, 21 in Sukkur, 20 in Shikarpur, 14 in Jamshoro, eight in Shaheed Benazirabad, seven in Khairpur, five in Mirpurkhas, four each in Dadu and Kashmore, and three apiece in Badin and Thatta.