KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Sunday said that there were 451 ventilators in the provincial government hospitals, and 109 of them were for coronavirus patients.

He said at present only 31Covid-19 patients were on ventilators which was 16 per cent utilisation of the total infected people, adding that “we have equipped our hospitals and coronavirus centres to provide best treatment facilities to our patients”.

In a statement issued here from CM House, the chief minister said that coronavirus had claimed nine more lives taking the death toll to 277, while 787 new cases emerged when 5,034 more tests were conducted overnight.

The new cases constitute 5.7 per cent of the conducted tests. “The government has conducted 122,894 tests against which 16,377 patients have been diagnosed which is 13.3 per cent of the total tests,” he added.

Mr Shah said that nine patients could not survive against the virus attack, thus the number of patients died due to coronavirus has reached to 277, which is 1.7 per cent of the total patients. He added that 114 patients were in critical condition, and 31 of them were put on ventilator.

He disclosed that the public-sector hospitals in the province had 451 ventilators in Sindh, of them the government had reserved 109 ventilators for coronavirus patients.

The chief minister said that at present 11,891 patients were under treatment, and 10,485 of them were at home isolation, 838 at isolation centres and 568 in different hospitals.

He said that 405 more patients recovered lifting the number of cured to 4,209, which constituted to 26 per cent.

The chief minister said that out 787 patients 515 belonged to Karachi, of them 147 in East, 121 in South, 109 in Central, 52 in Malir, 44 in Korangi and 42 in West.

He added that 31 new cases were detected in Shikarpur, 25 Larkana, 16 Hyderabad, 14 Ghotki, 13 Kambar-Shahdadkot, six Khairpur and three in Jamshoro.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2020