HYDERABAD: Three patients of coronavirus, including a female schoolteacher who suffered from other ailments as well, died over the past two days in the city.

The teacher Shaheen Bibi, who served in a government school in Qasimabad, tested positive a week ago after one of her colleagues contracted the virus and the school was closed subsequently.

District Health Officer Dr Lala Jaffar said that the teacher was quarantined at home and focal person who dealt with home isolation cases was not informed by her family about any medical assistance she needed. She was suffering from comorbidities as well and died at home on Friday night, said sources.

Another woman, Ruqaya, 38, died at her home in Latifabad unit-10 where she was quarantined after contracting the virus while 50-year-old Murad Bux, a resident of Mirpurkhas, died in Liaquat University Hospital on Sunday. He had been under treatment since Oct 15.

Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro said that coronavirus positivity rate in Hyderabad had been 1.3 per cent over the past 10 days and the administration was regularly monitoring the situation.

The positivity rate had gradually declined over the past few days and at present there were 191 active cases of Covid-19 and 4,909 had recovered, he said.

He put death toll from coronavirus in Hyderabad at 80 since the virus’s outbreak and said that a total of 5,180 cases had been reported in the city so far and of them 5,012 were locally transmitted. As many as 67,633 PCR tests had been performed in the city so far, he added.

Meanwhile, two female teachers of a private school tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday while four students of a government secondary school contracted the virus in Matiari district on Saturday.

According to district health officer, Dr Yar Mohammad, total active cases of coronavirus in Matiari are 21 and all are home isolated. Three deaths had been reported so far in the district, he said.

Edhi Welfare Centre in-charge Mairjauddin said when asked about burial of patients dying from Covid-19 that Edhi volunteers were no longer handling the burials since the guidelines for Covid-19 standard operating procedures had been relaxed by the government.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2020