Sindh sees over 600 new Covid-19 cases for third day

Govt spokesperson denies NCOC claim of Hyderabad having 16.59% positive detection rate

HYDERABAD:

As Sindh reported over 600 fresh Covid-19 cases for the third day in a row, provincial government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab denied reports that Hyderabad had recorded a positive detection rate of over 16 per cent - the highest in the country - over the weekend.

The provincial death toll from the coronavirus rose to 2,687 on Monday with three more deaths. Another 665 Covid-19 cases were confirmed taking the provincial tally to 150,832, while 262 patients recovered between Sunday and Monday.

According to a statement issued by the Chief Minister's House, there are 7,335 confirmed active infections in Sindh, of which 7,021 patients are in home isolation, 310 at different hospitals and four in isolation centres. The condition of at least 283 patients is said to be critical with 35 on ventilators.

As many as 503 of the 665 new cases were reported from Karachi, largely from districts South and East, while Hyderabad reported 40 new infections, Badin 24, Shaheed Benazirabad 12, Jamshoro 11, Sanghar 10, Dadu, and Tando Allahayar six each, Khotki five, Khairpur and Shikarpur four each, Larkana, Kambar and Tando Mohammad Khan three each, Thatta and Matiari two each, Sukkur, Sujawal and Umerkot one each.

Earlier in the day, the National Command and Operation Centre, in its daily updates of the pandemic situation in the country, had claimed that 15 major cities had a high virus positivity ratio, with Hyderabad at the top of the list with 16.59 per cent of the samples tested on Sunday emerging positive for the coronavirus. Karachi, meanwhile, was said to have a detection ratio of 7.12 per cent.

However, in a video statement posted on his Twitter account, Wahab termed the claim about Hyderabad's testing ratio incorrect, stating that 1,600 tests were conducted in the district over the past 24 hours, of which 140 were positive for the virus. This, he said, was a ratio of 8.75 per cent.

The spokesperson further stated that 3,200 samples had been tested in the last 48 hours, with 276 showing as positive for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the Research and Diagnostic Laboratory at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Science, which has been processing coronavirus tests from Hyderabad and several other districts, stated that it had tested 4,858 samples on Sunday, until the wee hours of Monday. Of these, 91 were positive, including 33 of 272 samples from Hyderabad district.

It is pertinent to note that the figures provided by the Sindh government include those reported by private laboratories as well.

Hyderabad's Liaquat University Hospital also saw three coronavirus-related deaths in its virus ward, which currently holds 18 patients, on Sunday and two more on Monday. Four of the deceased were from Hyderabad and one belonged to Sanghar district.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2020.