Murad orders setting up more isolation centres in city after 340 new COVID-19 cases

The highest number of new coronavirus cases in a single day were recorded in Sindh between Saturday and Sunday when 383 people tested positive for the viral disease, of whom 340 belonged to Karachi.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah provided this information during his routine video message on Sunday. The CM disclosed in the video message that 3,028 tests were conducted during the last 24 hours, of which 383 came out to be the positive cases of COVID-19, which constituted 12 per cent of the total tests.

“This is the highest figure ever reported during the 61-day COVID-19 emergency,” Shah remarked and added that “this shows the situation is going from bad to worse and we would have to take some extraordinary measures.”

He said so far a total of 41,216 tests had been conducted in Sindh, of which 4,615 or 11.2 per cent had been diagnosed positive. Shah added that three more patients had died due to the coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours which raised the death toll to 81 or 1.8 per cent of the total patients.

At present, 3,662 patients of COVID-19 are under treatment in Sindh, of whom 2,432 or 66 per cent had isolated themselves at their homes, 767 or 21 per cent were being treated at isolation centres and 463 or 13 per cent were in different hospitals.

The CM said 41 patients were in a critical state and 12 of them had been put on ventilators. “The doctors are struggling to save their lives,” he said adding that 70 patients had recovered from the illness during the last 24 hours after which the total number of recovered patients had become 872, which was 18.9 per cent of the total patients.

Karachi is worst affected

The CM said Karachi was the worst affected division of the province. He explained that District Central had 594 cases with 99 new ones, District East had 676 with 66 new one, District Korangi had 318 with 26 new ones, District Malir had 272 with 10 new ones, District South had 895 with 80 ones and District West had 322 cases with 20 new ones.

Shah said of the 4,615 coronavirus cases in Sindh, 3,077 were from Karachi. “This is a serious situation,” he said and added he would have to establish more filed hospitals/Isolation Centers.

Shah said that two more flights from Malaysia and Dubai had landed in Karachi. He added that both the flights had brought 505 stranded Pakistanis and all of them had been kept in a quarantine facility. He added that the health department had started collecting their samples and by Monday their results would come.

New isolation centres

During a meeting on Sunday, the CM directed the Karachi commissioner to prepare a plan to enhance the capacity of the Expo Centre field hospital from 1,200 patients to 1,500. He also issued directives for setting up isolation centres at the Pakistan Air Force Museum Convention Center, Dalmia ground, Darul Ehsas Manghopir and other areas.

The CM assigned the task of exploring other empty buildings and grounds to Planning and Development Board Chairperson Mohammad Waseem where field hospitals could be established.

Presiding over another meeting on divisions other than Karachi, the CM reviewed the sampling methods and availability of testing kits there and directed them to start extensive testing.

Shah said that 17 new COVID-19 cases had been detected in Sukkur and seven in Hyderabad districts. He directed Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho to send special teams of lab experts to each and every district of Sindh to guide the staff there through the testing mechanism. He directed all the deputy commissioners to improve the health facilities under them and encourage people to adopt social distancing in their respective areas.