After KP and Punjab, Sindh’s coronavirus death toll tops 100

Ag Agencies

KARACHI: After Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, Sindh’s coronavirus death toll topped the grim milestone of 100 on Wednesday, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said, as he revealed the province saw its highest day-on-day increase in virus infections with 404 confirmed cases — of those 332 in Karachi alone.

“This is a very serious situation because we are detecting more cases, though the 20.5 per cent recovery ratio is encouraging but we have to save the life of our people,” Shah said in his regular video message.

Punjab’s death toll entered three digits a day before and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa earlier than that. This comes as the nationwide virus cases exceeded 15,500, with 335 deaths in total. Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported eight deaths in their respective provinces on Wednesday. Shah said 404 new cases emerged when 3,729 tests were conducted. “This is quite worrisome that out of 404 cases, 332 belong to Karachi,” he said and added: “Karachi is on the increase in terms of new cases and deaths of the patients.”

The chief minister said two flights from Kuala Lumpur and Abu Dhabi brought back 505 stranded Pakistanis to Karachi. “They all were tested and 69 of them were diagnosed as positive and 39 results are yet to come,” he disclosed. In Punjab, Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar said the provincial government has so far provided special funds amounting to Rs15 billion to the Health Department and Rs2.5 billion to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Punjab to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Directorate declared coronavirus tests mandatory for its staff.

Meanwhile, Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal lawmaker Abdul Rasheed told APP that eight members of his family have tested positive for coronavirus a week after he himself was diagnosed with Covid-19. “I have been living in self-isolation for seven days and my family members have also tested positive for coronavirus including my mother, children, wife, sister and brother-in-law,” said Abdul Rasheed. He added that he had been self-isolating for a week. “I had been experiencing mild symptoms of fever for five days before testing positive,” he said. The test result came positive within 24-hours and “since then I went into isolation,”he added.

In a separate development, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Firdous Shamim Naqvi announced he would challenge Sindh government’s Covid-19 Emergency Relief Ordinance, 2020 in court, Geo News

reported. Raising tensions further between Sindh and the centre, the leader of Opposition in the provincial assembly said he “strongly condemned” the ordinance aimed at providing relief to people hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The ordinance mandates a 20 per cent reduction in school fees, protection of employees against mass layoffs, and offers relief in utility bills.