KARACHI: Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah said Tuesday that the country's coronavirus toll hit new highs as 19 patients lost their lives, which is the highest number since the first death was reported on March 19.
"The 19 deaths within 24 hours are the highest number and now Sindh's death toll stands at 299," Shah said.
Shah said that 706 new patients were detected when 3,803 samples were tested.
The chief minister said that from March 19 to May 19, there have been five deaths per day on average. “Though the death ratio stands at 1.6% of the total patients [...] yet it is quite painful,” he deplored.
He said the statistics showed that the recovery rate was much lower than the infection rate and this rate could be controlled if everyone would follow the safety measures.
Furthermore, he said that at present 135 patients were in critical condition, of them 34 were on ventilators.
Talking about the 12,906 patients, Shah said that 11,373 or 88% were in home isolation, 819 at isolation centers, and 715 or 5.7% in different hospitals across the province.
The provincial chief disclosed that 252 more patients recovered from the infection, taking the recovered tally to 4,741 bumping the recovery ratio to 27%.
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 totals tests stands at 13.7% which is higher than several other countries,” he said.
Talking about Karachi, Shah said that out of 706 new cases 558 belonged to Karachi. They include 134 from South, 131 district East, 105 district Central, 72 district West, 58 district Malir and 58 in Korangi.
Meanwhile, 20 new cases were detected in Hyderabad, 16 Larkana, 12 Kambar-Shahdadkot, 10 Jamshoro, six each in Shikarpur and Sukkur, five Khairpur, four Jacobabad, three each in Mirpurkhas, and Sanghar, two each in Dadu, Ghotki, and Kashmore while one each in Badin, Tando Allahyar, and Naushahro Feroze.
According to the chief minister, three flights from Washington, Muscat, and Jeddah brought 792 stranded Pakistanis to Karachi on May 14, 15, and 16 respectively. 60 of the passengers tested positive.
The chief minister once again urged the people to follow SOPS and avoid going out of their home without any solid reason.