KARACHI: The Sindh government on Saturday decided to establish 14 Critical Care Units (CCUs) across the province, including one in Karachi.

Presiding over the 31st meeting of task force on coronavirus at the CM House, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah issued the order to this effect further directing that the CCUs must be equipped with ventilators, monitors, pulse oximeter, suction machines, defibrillator and compressors.

The meeting was attended by Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho, Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Adviser on Law Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, ACS Home Usman Chachar, Health Secretary Zahid Abbasi, Brigadier Abul Sami of 5 Corps, representatives of Rangers, FIA and CAA, Focal Person M.B. Dharejo and IGP Mushtaq Mahar.

The chief minister said that during the ongoing lockdown health facilities had to be strengthened. “I want health department to establish new 14 CCUs, one in Karachi and 13 in other thickly populated districts,” he added.

Mr Shah said that one CCU with 100-200 vent beds in the city and 13 CCUs with 600 vent beds in different districts of the province be established.

He directed the health secretary to equip the proposed vent bed CCUs with ventilators, monitors, pulse oximeters, suction machines and compressors and also provide them 850 medical officers, 1,320 nurses, ICU technicians and auxiliary staff.

The CM said that the CCU for Karachi should have 200 ventilators, 200 monitors, 200 pulse oximeters, 50 suction machines, 20 defibrillator and 50 compressors. The facility should have 100 doctors, 200 nurses, 75 ICU technicians and 120 auxiliary staff.

He was told that 45 hospitals in the province had Covid-19 isolation case management facilities. These hospitals have 505 beds where 294 patients have been admitted and 291 of them were clinically stable. Another 14 have already recovered and been discharged.

The chief minister was informed that there were 469 cases of coronavirus in the province. They included 189 of Karachi, seven of Larkana, one of Dadu, seven of Hyderabad and 162 of Sukkur (151 of Sukkur phase-I and 114 of Sukkur phase-II).

The meeting was told that a total of 5,322 tests had been conducted so far and of them 4,835 tested negative and 469 found positive for the virus.

The CM noted that 12 new cases emerged on Saturday in Karachi where the number of new case on March 27 was 17. “Data shows that the cases of local transmission have reached 132,” he said, adding that 41 cases were detected during the last three days (March 26 to 28).

It may be noted that 63 infected people in city had travel history. Eleven of them came from the United Kingdom, eight from Syria, seven from Saudi Arabia, six each from Dubai, Turkey and Iran, five from the United States, two from Switzerland and one each from Italy, Qatar and Iraq.

The meeting was informed that 150 people were in isolation at their homes, 14 were cured, one died and the remaining 20 persons are under treatment in different hospitals of the city.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2020