Sher Afzal
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, giving his regular video briefing to the people of the country in general and Sindh in particular, Wednesday said that two more patients lost their lives while fighting against Coronavirus infection apart from detecting 50 more new confirmed cases in Sindh during last 24 hours.
In the video message released by a spokesperson of the Sindh CM’s House, the chief minister shares data of COVID-19 upto the morning of April 8, saying that the provincial government conducted 785 more tests, of them 50 samples were found to be positive.
The number of tests conducted so far comes to 10981 while number of total cases, which were 896 till morning of April 7, with addition of 50 new cases have reached 1036.
The chief minister said that two patients expired between April 7 to April 8 morning.
The death toll in coronavirus has reached to 20.
The number of coronavirus patients, according to the chief minister is 1036, of them 382 are in home isolation and 97 at Isolation centers and 257 patients are under treatment at different hospitals of the province. Out of 1036 cases, 637 are locally transmitted. Murad, discussing seriousness of Coronavirus threat in the country, said that first case was reported on February 26, and after 30 days on March 25, the tally reached to 1000 cases. And then, just after seven days on April 1, the number of cases rose to 2000 and then after six days on April 6, the number of cases reached to 3000 and on April 7 or just after one day we have 4000 cases in the country. Therefore, the strategy must be based on the ground reality.
The chief minister urged the people to observe social distancing as advised by the experts. He added that few more days were left to ease the lockdown, therefore the reaming days of the lock down must be observed strictly.
Giving message on the importance of the holy night “Shahb-e-barat”, the chief minister said that it was the night of prayers and forgiveness. Therefore, we must offer prayers at our homes and even offer dua for the departed souls of our dear and near ones at homes. He also urged Ulemas to explain importance of shab-e-Baraat on TV channels so that every-one at home could listen and understand.
Meanwhile, a nine-member medical experts delegation of China led by Ma Minghui called on Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and shared their experience to contain the Coronavirus.
They urged the chief minister to ensure social distancing among the people, otherwise spread of infection could not be controlled.
They said that they had observed strict lockdown, that was why everything brought under control.
The chief minister said that he has also closed the government offices, schools and all business centers and even factories and public transport. “This is why we have contained it but still we have to take more measures to save our people,” he said.
The CM said that due to shortage of testing kits and equipments, his government could not conduct test of all people. “We are testing those who have travel history and family members of the positive cases,” he said. The visiting delegation assured the chief minister that they would provide him expertise and other equipments.
They also said that distribution of food (ration) should also be made in isolation. Crowds in any kind would destroy the efforts of containing the virus, they said. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah also participated in the prime minister’s meeting through video link.
The chief minister suggested that the people coming from other countries through international flights should be kept in quarantine at any nearby hotel. The chief minister also suggested to issue SOP for post lockdown period and said that new discipline of life would have to be made to contain corona virus.
