NAWABSHAH: Six members of a family, among them women and children, and a neighbour of a Covid-19 patient who died recently, tested positive for the virus in a locality on Thursday, indicating a steady growth in local transmission of the contagion.

The locality had been sealed by the administration and the family and neighbours had been quarantined in their houses on Sunday after the officials concerned came to know about the death of a Covid-19 patient at a private hospital in Karachi and his burial in the locality’s graveyard without following WHO-recommended SOPs.

Health officials said they had collected samples of 20 people and they were making efforts to trace all the people who had attended the funeral.

The hospital had taken the patient’s sample for test but he died before its result came through. Thereafter, the hospital packed the body and handed it over to the family with instructions for burial as per SOPs of WHO.

But the family either could not understand or deliberately ignored the advice and observed all last rites including ghusl, namaz-i-janaza and burial which were attended by many, increasing chances of the virus’ spread.

LARKANA: The district administration sealed four more localities in the city where four cases of Covid-19 surfaced recently, according to SSP Masood Ahmed Bangash.

He said that police had sealed a number of streets in Empire Road, Qafila Serai, Ali Goharabad and Samiabad localities to restrict peoples’ movement and interaction.

Earlier, he said, localities of Nawan Tak, Dari and Bakrani Road had been sealed. So far, 26 cases of local transmission, among a total of 66 positive cases of Covid-19, had been detected in Larkana, according to control room.

DADU: Two out of 19 members of Tableeghi Jamaat quarantined in Hepatitis Centre, tested positive for the virus and 17 tested negative, said DC Raja Shahzaman Khuhro.

He said the 17 had been sent home and the two patients had been quarantined. There was no case of local transmission of the virus in the district, said DHO Dr Zahid Hussain Dawach.

MIRPURKHAS: Two members of Tableeghi Jamaat and a local lab assistant tested positive for the virus on Thursday and were shifted to isolation centre set up in under-construction district headquarters hospital.

Sources said the Jamaat members who had been quarantined in a mosque hailed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the lab assistant was a local.

Meanwhile, local leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz donated personal protective equipment to the isolation centre in charge.

They also went to rural health centre in Mirwah Gorchani and handed over safety kits, surgical masks and other equipment to the RHC in charge.

UMERKOT: An expecting mother from Umerkot tested positive for Covid-19 at CMH Hyderabad on Thursday, raising number of the district’s tally of patients to five.

The woman’s relatives told journalists that they first took her to CMH Chhor where doctors suspected she had symptoms of coronavirus and collected her samples for the test before shifting her to Hyderabad. The test result later confirmed she had Covid-19, they said.

Soon afterwards, district health officials rushed to the Allah Dino Mahar village, collected samples of 30 family members of the woman and advised them to quarantine themselves at home.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2020