Karachi’s health facilities packed to capacity: ICUs, HDUs brimming with patients as eight more die

By M. Waqar Bhatti
January 23, 2022

KARACHI: With eight more deaths caused by coronavirus, the metropolis city’s private health facilities dealing with the novel virus have been packed to capacity as the positivity rate hovers over 45 percent in the city.

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The Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) was packed to capacity with Covid-19 patients on Saturday night while other private hospitals, including Dr. Ziauddin Hospital and the Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital (SIDH) officials said they were regularly receiving Covid-19 patients.

Officials at Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital said there were 100 patients under treatment at the facility, of which 35 were in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while 65 were in High Dependency Unit (HDU). Besides, as many as 46 patients are receiving treatment at Civil Hospital Karachi, 30 at JPMC and several others at Lyari General Hospital and Expo Center Karachi.

Sindh health department officials claimed that three people died of Covid-19 in the district East, two in the district Central, one each in Malir and South.

Officials said around 420 patients are under treatment at different public and private hospitals, of which condition of 367 is critical with varying oxygen levels, while 21 are on the ventilators.

Sharing Covid-19 data on Saturday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said as many as 3,359 new cases, including 2,652 cases from Karachi were reported in Sindh out of 16,269 tests conducted in the province. It marked the detection rate as 20.6 percent.

He added out of of 521,689 patients, who were tested positive from 7,451,367 tests, 474,355 patients have been recovered, constituting 90.9 precent rate.

The CM said currently 39,596 patients are under treatment, of them 39,146 are in home isolation, 30 at isolation centers and 420 at different hospitals, adding that the condition of 367 patients was stated to be critical, including 21 who are on ventilators.

According to a district-wise break-up given by him, out of 2,652 cases detected from Karachi; 920 are from East, 807 from South, 395 from Central, 279 from Malir, 178 from Korangi and 73 from West.

In addition, 264 cases reported from Hyderabad, 26 from Sanghar, 25 each from Sujawal and Tando Muhammad Khan, 22, Badin, 17, Sukkur, 16 each from Mirpurkhas and Thatta, 15, Tharparkar, 13 each from Dadu, Shaheed Benazirabad, Shikarpur and Matiari, 12 each from Ghotki, Khairpur and Jamshoro, 10 each from Tando Allahyar and Umerkot, 9 from Larkana, 6 from Jacobabad and 3 from Kashmore. Sindh CM said that a total of 33,115,461 doses of vaccination have been administered so far which constituted 59.73 percent of the vaccine eligible population. The chief minister urged people of the province to follow SOPs.

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