Sindh govt to provide oxygen to home isolation patients

Province's tally nears 47,000 with over 3,000 new cases

KARACHI: As Covid-19 cases in the province continue to rise exponentially, with over 3,000 new cases reported on Thursday, the Sindh government has decided to provide oxygen to home-isolated coronavirus patients at their residences.

The decision was made during a Coronavirus Emergency Fund (CEF) Committee meeting on Thursday.

Addressing the meeting, Sindh chief secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah said that the virus was spreading rapidly among the masses and the majority of patients were in home isolation, many among them in need of oxygen.

According to a statement issued by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on the day, of 24,005 coronavirus patients in the province, 22,324 are home-isolated, while 60 were in isolation centres and 1,621 were undergoing treatment at different hospitals.

In the light of this observation, the chief secretary constituted a committee comprising the provincial health secretary, Jinnah Sindh Medical University vice-chancellor Dr SM Tariq Rafi, Indus Hospital chief executive officer Dr Abdul Bari and the Sindh secretariat additional secretary.



The committee has been tasked with devising a mechanism for the provision of oxygen under a public-private partnership model and getting advertisements published for proposal from private enterprises.

"Timely provision of oxygen [to Covid-19 patients] at their homes can help save many lives," said the chief secretary.

The meeting was further told that at present, three companies were supplying oxygen cylinders in the province.

Besides, Shah said that the government was working towards increasing the number of intensive care and high dependency units in the province, as well as upgrading the existing ones, and establishing laboratories in divisional headquarters and medical universities for coronavirus testing.

The Sindh finance secretary told the meeting that Rs3.62 billion were deposited in the CEF so far, of which Rs1.11 billion was utilised and another Rs1 billion were to be spent on more purchases, orders for which had been placed.

Soaring tally

Separately, the CM announced that 3,038 new coronavirus cases had emerged in the province as of Thursday and 38 more virus-related death were reported.

Following this, the province's Covid-19 tally soared to 46,828 and the death toll climbed to 776.

As many as 3,083 of 10,088 samples tested between Wednesday and Thursday are found to be carrying the virus, which means that 30 per cent of the samples tested positive, he said, adding that this was the highest single-day tally yet against the highest number of samples tested so far.

He lamented that the situation had gone from bad to worse, urging the public to realise the severity of the situation.

Presenting a bleak picture on the basis of current virus trends, he said that health experts had projected the cases to exceed 300,000 by the end of June, with around 5,000 deaths.

Giving a district-wise breakdown of the newly reported cases, the CM said that 2,145 of them belonged to Karachi alone, with 650 having been surfaced in South district, 569 in East district, 307 in Central district, 284 in Malir, 201 in Korangi and 134 in West district.

Meanwhile, he said, 88 new cases emerged in Hyderabad, 77 in Larkana, 67 in Ghotki, 26 in Nawabshah, 23 in Shikarpur, 23 in Jacobabad, 22 in Jamshoro and as many in Khairpur, 19 in Dadu, 13 in Badin, 11 in Sujawal, 10 in Matiari, eight in Thatta, seven in Mirpurkhas, seven in Naushero Feroze, five in Tando Mohammad Khan, three in Tando Allahyar and one in Qambar-Shahdadkot.

He said that of 1,621 hospitalised coronavirus patients, 636 were in critical condition, including 79 on ventilators.