Wahab says Covid-19 situation ‘not good’ in Sindh

Urges people to follow SOPs like wearing facemasks at public gatherings

KARACHI:

The Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab has said that the current situation In Sindh, with regards to the Covid-19 pandemic, was "not good".

"The infection rate has reached 15.5%. Karachi, an industrial hub. There is a 9.45% ratio in seven days. People have stopped taking precautions, be it wedding ceremonies or any other occasion," he stated while addressing a press conference on the premises of Sindh Assembly.

He urged people to wear facemasks in order to contain spread of the deadly virus. "So far, we have not taken any tough decision."

He said the health department was monitoring the situation. "If we take precautions again, the situation will not get worse. At the moment, the pressure on our hospitals is not high, but citizens should be careful not to ignore precautionary measures."

39 Omicron cases

CM Murad Ali Shah giving the daily situation report said that 39 more cases of Omicron variant emerged when 53 samples were tested lifting the tally to 367 and 940 new cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed through 13,757 tests and one more patient died lifting the death toll to 7,682.

Read: COVID-19 claims four lives, infects 183 others

Shah said the latest fatality lifted the death toll to 7,682 that constituted 1.6 per cent death rate and 940 new cases emerged when 13,757 tests were conducted that came to 6.8 per cent current detection rate for the whole province.

According to the statement, out of 940 new cases, 799 have been detected from Karachi.

Hyderabad has 27, Thatta 15, Jamshoro 11, Matiari and Shaheed Benazirabad 10 each.

Vaccination

Sharing vaccination data the CM said that in total 30.753 million anti-Covid vaccines have administered which constituted 55.67 per cent of the vaccine-eligible population.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2022.