Coronavirus hit high with 14 deaths: Murad

Sher Afzal

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that since March 19 when we had one death stemming from coronavirus and today we have 14 deaths within 24 hours taking the toll to 171.

“Though the deaths in terms of total patients is 1.9 percent yet we are losing our precious lives and we can control it if we all observe standard operating procedures (SOPs) and guidelines of the experts in true letter and spirit,” he said this in a statement issued from the Chief Minister’s House on Thursday.

Murad said that the first case of coronavirus was reported on February 26 and the first death occurred on March 19, 2020.

“Today on the 72nd day of pandemic we have 9093 cases and from March 19 to May 7 means within 49 days coronavirus has claimed 171 lives. “This is the situation I want to share with each and every individual living in the province so that they can assess where we are heading and how we have to reshape our lives during the on-going pandemic,” he said. 

He said that when 3534 tests were conducted against which 453 new cases were diagnosed. The tests conducted so far come to 76,078 against which 9093 cases have been detected, he said.

He said that out of 453 cases, 335 cases belong to Karachi including 91 cases belong to District Central, 81 South, 69 East, 33 Korangi, 33 Malir and 28 to West. “We are increasing the intensity of the random tests at grocery and vegetable shops and this will help to detect more cases of local spread,” he said. 

Syed Murad Ali Shah said that Larkana has 35 cases, Khairpur 16, Sukkur 12, Hyderabad nine, Kashmore eight and Sanghar three cases.

The chief minister said that Larkana, Khairpur and Sukkur have produced a large number of cases of local transmission. “This is a serious situation and everyone has to understand the sensitivity of the issue, otherwise we won’t be able to control it,” he said.

The chief minister said that at present 7069 patients were under treatment, including 5858 at home isolation, 683 at Isolation centers and 528 at patients. He added that 87 patients were in critical condition, of them 14 were on ventilator.

Disclosing the data of the flights he said that so far 2369 stranded Pakistanis have returned and they all were tested, as a result 515 patients came positive and they were under treatment. 

The chief minister said that his government has developed 17 facilities with 4688 beds purely allocated for COVID-19 patients against which 1224 patients have been admitted. 

The chief minister urged people of Sindh to be cautious and save themselves and their near and dear ones from the virus.