Sindh's coronavirus death toll surpasses 1,000 mark

C: Highest single-day fatalities and infections reported in the province so far

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah raised alarm on Friday on the worsening situation of the pandemic in the province, saying that the coronavirus had claimed 49 more lives overnight - the highest number of single-day deaths reported yet.

Following this, the number of deaths stemming from the contagion in Sindh has peaked to 1,013, he said, adding that another 2,894 Covid-19 cases emerged against 13,642 tests on the day.

Stating that these were the highest number of samples tested so far, as well as the highest one-day tally of Covid-19, the CM observed that the province's total infection count had reached 65,163.

He claimed that Sindh had ramped up its daily testing capacity, which was now the highest among the provinces, adding that 20 laboratories had been established in 10 districts. “We have enhanced our testing capacity by 110 times, which is a manifestation of our commitment to the people of Sindh,” he added.

‘Smart lockdown’ begins in Karachi

As per the CM, of the newly reported cases, 1,626 belonged to Karachi, comprising 471 from East district, 413 from South district, 255 from Central district, 213 from Malir, 150 from Korangi and 124 from West district.

Moreover, 164 cases were detected in Khairpur, 64 in Hyderabad, 62 in Jamshoro, 45 in Ghotki, 30 in Sukkur, 29 in Larkana, 26 in Thatta, 22 in Naushero Feroze, 18 in Sanghar, 17 in Shaheed Benazirabad, 16 in Dadu, nine in Shikarpur, seven each in Jacobabad and Kashmore-Kandhkot, six each in Umerkot, Matiari and Mirpurkhas, three each in Badin, Tando Allahyar and Tando Muhammad Khan and two each in Qambar-Shahdadkot and Sujawal, he added.

Besides, the CM said, 1,691 more patients had recuperated from the disease, raising the total number of recovered patients to 32,725.

This left 31,425 patients under treatment, he calculated, adding that 29,818 of them were in home-isolation, 64 in isolation centres and 1,543 in hospitals. Of those in hospitals, 673 are critically ill and 113 on ventilators, he added.

According to him, the number of hospitalised coronavirus patients had increased 11-fold and the number of critically ill patients 22-fold in the past 22 days

Keeping in the view the worsening state of the pandemic, he said the government had enforced a partial lockdown in various localities to protect citizens from the contagion and appealed to people to cooperate with district administration.

"We will only come out of this pandemic with your [citizens'] cooperation," he stressed. "At this time we need to stay united, protect each other and practice precaution."