KARACHI: City’s Covid-19 situation remains alarming as the infection claimed eight more lives on Saturday, raising the death toll from the infection in three days to 28.

Sources told Dawn majority of the victims were women.

Karachi contributed 40 per cent of the new cases reported in the country overnight.

According to the data released from the Chief Minister House, Karachi reported almost 80pc of the new infections reported in the last 24 hours in the province while the number of critical patients in the province rose to 367 from 339 a day before.

“The overall general pattern shows that women are getting infected in larger numbers than men. This trend has much to do with the fact a significant number of stay-at-home women have not vaccinated themselves against the disease, thinking that they are safe at home,” said Dr Saeed Khan of the Dow University of Health Sciences.

28 patients died in just three days; more women are getting infected than men due to lack of vaccination

On the Omicron-driven wave sweeping across the country, Dr Khan said 100pc cases now being reported were of this particular variant.

“It’s of no use to check its prevalence. In fact, we need to worry about the new coronavirus variants being reported elsewhere in the world,” he said.

Also read: 500 health workers infected with coronavirus in Karachi

70pc patients at hospitals are unvaccinated

Emphasising the need for vaccination, Dr Yahya Tunio, Deputy Executive Director at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, said 70pc of the Covid-19 patients admitted to the hospital were unvaccinated.

“That shows how important it is to get vaccinated. The disease severity is less and one can see hospital admission is far less in this Omicron-driven wave as compared to the high number of infections being reported these days. But, the fact remains that the virus has the potential to kill,” he said.

Seconding his opinion, Dr Abdul Wahid Rajput at the Infectious Disease Hospital and Research Centre, said patients largely included the 50 plus age-group having different health complications.

“Patient admission has risen to 100. Of them, 35 patients are in critical condition,” he said, adding that the low vaccination trend among was a serious issue.

Health dept closes office

Sources said dozens of health workers had fallen ill due to Covid-19 infection over the past weeks at different hospitals. This included 30 plus staff of DUHS and JPMC each and 41 of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.

They said the health department office had been closed for a week after eight employees tested positive.

Currently, according to the CM House statement, 39,596 patients are under treatment; of them 39,146 are in home isolation, 30 at isolation centres and 420 at different hospitals.

According to the statement, out of the 3,359 new cases in the province, 2,652 have been detected from Karachi, including 920 cases from district East, 807 cases from South, 395 cases from Central, 279 cases from Malir, 178 cases from Korangi and 73 cases from West.

Hyderabad had 264, Sanghar 26, Sujawal and Tando Muhammad Khan 25 each, Badin 22, Sukkur 17, Mirpurkhas and Thatta 16 each, Tharparkar 15, Dadu, Shaheed Benazirabad, Shikarpur and Matiari 13 each, Ghotki, Khairpur and Jamshoro 12 each, Tando Allahyar and Umerkot 10 each, Larkana nine, Jacobabad six and Kashmore three.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2022