Forty-six more people have died due to COVID-19 and another 1,708 cases have been reported during the past 24 hours in Sindh, with the death toll due to the viral disease reaching 1,572 in the province.
Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said in his daily situation report on the health emergency on Monday that 12,479 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, resulting in 1,708 people, or 14 per cent of those who were screened, being diagnosed with COVID-19.
The provincial government has so far conducted 514,905 tests, which have resulted in 96,236 positive cases, which means that 19 per cent of those screened have been found to be infected, he added.
The chief executive said that after the latest deaths, the percentage of the
diagnosed people who have lost their fight with COVID-19 continues to stand at 1.6 per cent. He said that 40,809 patients are currently under treatment: 38,875 in self-isolation at home, 327 at isolation centres and 1,607 at hospitals, while 623 patients are in critical condition, of whom 96 are on life support.
He added that 679 more people have recovered during the past 24 hours, increasing the number of cured patients to 53,855, which shows a 56 per cent recovery rate. Shah said that out of the 1,708 fresh cases of Sindh, 920 (or 54 per cent) have been reported in Karachi Division: 485 of the new patients belong to District South, 133 to District East, 104 to District Korangi, 72 to District Central, 64 to District Malir and 62 to District West.
He added that Hyderabad has reported 190 new cases, Sukkur 107, Shaheed Benazirabad 48, Sanghar 42, Naushehroferoze 35, Tando Allahyar 34, Khairpur 29, Mirpurkhas 25, Larkana 23, Jamshoro and Tando Muhammad Khan 21 each, Kambar 20, Sujawal 17, Matiari 16, Shikarpur 15, Ghotki eight, Thatta six, Kashmore and Dadu three each, and Jacobabad two.
‘Not ending soon’
Realising that the novel coronavirus was not going to end soon from the world, including Pakistan, the Sindh Task Force on COVID-19 had heard experts and officials at a meeting on Saturday and decided to promote the use of masks among the people, implement targeted lockdowns in hotspots, enhance testing and improve health facilities and isolation centres by making available more high dependency unit (HDU) beds at isolation centres in the province.
Presided over by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, various ways and means were discussed at the meeting at the CM House to slow down the spread of the coronavirus in the province. The meeting decided to promote the use of masks through advocacy, ensure free availability of masks to people, use a “carrot and stick” policy in this regard, and put in place targeted lockdowns in areas where the transmission of the virus was very high.
On the question of the lockdown, the meeting observed that Sindh could not decide against the “national discourse”, so it was important to take decisions to slow down the spread of the coronavirus among the people, and in this regard, preventive measures and advocacy should be used to convince the people to use masks, follow social distancing.
The chief minister said they had decided to convert 8,672 isolation beds into HDU beds in more than two phases, while more ventilators would be purchased to enhance the ICUs capacity in the province. At present, the provincial government has 503 ICU beds with ventilators and 1,810 HDU beds.
Shah said his government had tested 300,247 samples till June 3, and of them 62,476 had tested positive for COVID-19, while during the corresponding period Punjab conducted 286,049 tests and detected 54,057 cases, KP tested 93,377 samples and detected 17,479 cases, Islamabad conducted 90,557 tests and detected 10,703 cases, Gilgit-Baltistan conducted 5,100 tests and detected 825 cases, Balochistan conducted 26,008 tests and detected 6,324 cases, and AJK did 10,351 tests and found 959 positive cases.