Sindh Infectious Diseases facility begins operations

NIPA hospital will start with capacity of 54 beds, to be increased to 200 in six weeks

KARACHI:

Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah inaugurated the newly-established Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital on Sunday. The facility, which has begun its operations with a capacity of 54 beds, is to be expanded to 200 beds within the next six weeks.

Work on turning the hospital, which has long been under construction, into an infectious diseases facility was initiated after the coronavirus pandemic reared its head in the province.

Renaming the health facility as Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital and Research Centre, the CM stated during his visit that it had been upgraded to a research centre so that necessary studies on coronavirus and other such diseases could be carried out there.

He handed over the management of the hospital to the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), with the institution's vice-chancellor having arranged the installment of all equipment necessary to make the facility functional.

Karachi (05.07.2020): Minister for Health & Population Welfare Dr. @AzraPechuho with CM Sindh @MuradAliShahPPP and Mr. @SyedNasirHShah visited the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Nipa #Karachi. This is a 200 bedded facility with HDUs and ICUs for #COVID19 patients. #SindhHealth pic.twitter.com/sjJGXk7eDG

— Health and Population Welfare Department, Sindh (@SindhHealthDpt) July 5, 2020

The hospital will initially have an eight-bed emergency ward, a 16-bed intensive care unit (ICU) and a 34-bed high dependency unit (HDU). However, in the next six weeks, the ICU capacity would be increased to 32 beds and HDU capacity to 88 beds, while radiology services will also be made available for the patients. Moreover, the health facility will have 16 ventilators, 200 monitors and other required equipment.

Shah claimed he had established two hospitals for Covid-19 patients in Karachi and would now establish other dedicated hospitals in every divisional headquarters.

The state of the pandemic

Separately, the CM shared that 2,222 more virus patients were diagnosed in the province overnight after 10,705 samples were tested. He also raised alarm over spikes in case in Ghotki, Sukkur, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Shaheed Benazirabad, Dadu, Khairpur and Badin.

He stated that 502,426 samples had been tested in Sindh so far, of which 94,528 turned out to be positive.

Moreover, Covid-19 claimed another 25 lives, lifting the provincial death toll to 1,526.

According to Shah, 39,837 people were currently infected with the virus in Sindh, with 37,875 of them in home isolation, 340 quarantined at isolation centres and 1,622 being treated at different hospitals. He added that 623 Covid-19 patients were in critical condition and 74 of them had been shifted to ventilators.

On the other hand, 777 more people recuperated from the virus, taking the total number of recoveries to 53,165 - putting the recovery rate at around 56 per cent.

Furthermore, the provincial capital saw 770 new cases, of which 237 were reported in East district, 156 in South, 126 in Central, 113 in Korangi, 72 in Malir and 66 in the West district, he shared.

In Sindh's other districts, Ghotki saw 294 fresh cases of Covid-19, Sukkur 128, Qambar-Shahdadkot 80, Shaheed Benazirabad 75, Dadu 73, Khairpur 61, Badin 57, Tando Muhammad Khan 54, Sanghar 51, Kashmore 50, Hyderabad 50, Larkana 48, Mirpurkhas 37, Tando Allahyar 36, Khairpur 33, Jacobabad 15, Matiari 14, Naushero Feroze and Jamshoro 11 each, Thatta six, Sujawal five and Umerkot four.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2020.