Murad Ali Shah orders COVID-19 seroprevalence studies in two Karachi UCs

Four more people died and another 427 tested positive for COVID-19 during the past 24 hours across Sindh, while the chief minister said on Saturday that a community surveillance study had been planned.

CM Syed Murad Ali Shah said that seroprevalence studies would be conducted in two union councils (UCs) of Karachi to assess the impact of the novel coronavirus in the city.

Following his meetings with health experts, Shah said that 380 telemedicine doctors had been deployed for following up on the patients who had recovered from the viral infection.

He said community surveillance was the need of the hour, so he had directed his team to develop a digital assessment app. Regarding the seroprevalence studies, he said the pilot study would be conducted in District South’s Kharadar and Kehkashan UCs.

The seroprevalence studies will find the number of persons in the populations who test positive for COVID-19 based on their blood serum specimens. Such studies often present as percentage the total specimens tested or as a proportion per 100,000 persons tested.

Situation report

Talking about the situation of COVID-19 in Sindh, the CM said that 46 patients had been cured, but 427 more cases had emerged, taking the tally of the novel coronavirus patients to 7,102 across the province.

He said that 3,259 tests were conducted, which resulted in 427 new cases, adding that the Sindh Health Department had tested 61,020 people so far, and of them, 11.6 per cent results, or 7,102 patients, were diagnosed as positive.

He also said that 46 patients were cured and sent back home, adding that the number of patients recovered so far came to 1,341, or 19 per cent of the total patients. The chief executive said that four more patients had died, taking the death toll to 122, or 1.7 per cent of the total patients, adding that 45 patients were in critical condition, and of them, 18 had been put on ventilators.

Sharing the data of the 5,639 patients under treatment, the CM said that 4,390 were in isolation at their houses, 733 were being kept at different isolation centres and 516 were getting medical attention at hospitals.

Regarding Karachi’s situation, he said that out of the 427 novel coronavirus cases detected across the province, 376 of those belonged to the metropolitan city alone.

“This shows that the number of new cases is not dropping in the city, so the people should understand the situation and take precautionary measures,” he stressed. Her lamented that women and children were also being infected with the coronavirus.

Regarding Karachi’s district-wise breakdown, he said that 131 new cases had been diagnosed in District South, 65 in District East, 54 in District Korangi, 47 in District West, 46 in District Central and 33 in District Malir. “Now we have 1,401 cases in South, 1,080 in East, 501 in Korangi, 484 in Malir and 572 in West.”

As for the other districts of the province, Shah said that six new cases had been diagnosed in Hyderabad, six in Larkana, six in Shaheed Benazirabad, five in Sukkur, four in Ghotki, four in Khairpur, two in Sanghar, one in Thatta and one in Sujawal.

The CM once again urged the people of the province to observe the standard operating procedures, including the observance of social distancing. “This is the new way of life and we have to adopt it,” he concluded.