KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday said that the dreaded coronavirus hit new highs as 19 more patients lost their lives overnight, taking the death toll to 299 in the province.

While disclosing it in a statement issued here from CM House, Mr Shah said 19 patients died over the past 24 hours and the number of deaths was the highest since the first death due to Covid-19 was reported on March 19.

“Now Sindh has total 299 deaths stemming from the coronavirus which constitutes 1.6 per cent of the total patients,” he added.

The chief minister said that on average five coronavirus affected people died per day from March 19 to May 19. “Though the deaths are at 1.6 per cent of the total patients yet we have taken 299 bodies within 61 days which is quite painful,” he deplored.

He said that at present 135 patients were in critical condition and 34 of them were put on ventilators. “May Allah help them recover at the earliest,” he prayed.

New patients

The chief minister said 706 new patients were detected when 3,803 samples were tested. “On the one hand our 252 patients recovered and on the other another 706 patients emerged which means despite discharging 252 patients 454 others were admitted,” he added.

Murad Shah said that these figures showed that the recovery rate was much lower than the infection rate and this rate could be controlled when everyone would follow the SOPs.

He said that so far the government had tested 131,376 samples against which 17,947 positive cases were diagnosed. “The overall percentage of positive cases of the total tests stands at 13.7 per cent, which is higher than the ratio of various other countries,” he said.

Talking about Karachi, the chief minister said that out of 706 new cases 558 belonged to Karachi. They include 134 in South, 131 in East, 105 in Central, 72 in West, 58 in Malir and 58 in Korangi. “Karachi as usual is on the top in local spread,” he said.

The chief minister said that there were 20 new cases in Hyderabad, 16 in Larkana, 12 in Qambar-Shahdadkot, 10 in Jamshoro, six each in Shikarpur and Sukkur, five in Khairpur, four in Jacobabad, three each in Mirpurkhas, and Sanghar, two each in Dadu, Ghotki and Kashmore, while one each in Badin, Tando Allahyar and Naushahro Feroze.

Flights

According to the chief minister, three flights from Washington, Muscat and Jeddah brought in 792 stranded Pakistanis to Karachi on May 14, 15 and 16. “They all were tested and as a result 60 of them came positive while the results of 17 passengers were being awaited,” he added.

The chief minister once again urged the people to follow SOPs and avoid going out of home without any solid reason.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2020