CM Murad Ali Shah calls for eschewing propaganda as COVID-19 affects 758 more, kills another nine in Sindh

The novel coronavirus claimed nine more lives between Wednesday and Thursday in Sindh, raising the death toll due to the infectious disease in the province to 243, said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in a statement issued on Thursday.

He added that 758 new cases of COVID-19 had also been detected in Sindh during the 24 hours.

The CM maintained that they had tested 4,487 samples between Wednesday and Thursday, of which 758 tested positive, which was 17 per cent of the samples.

He maintained that since the first COVID-19 case in the province, 107,827 samples had been tested and 14,099 cases, which were 13.1 per cent of the total tests, diagnosed. Currently, 10,783 patients were under treatment, of whom 9,307 were in home isolation, 915 at isolation centres and 561 at different hospitals, the CM said, adding that 105 patients were in a critical state, including 37 on ventilators.

According to Shah, so far 243 patients have recovered from the viral disease. He said the ratio of recovered patients was 17 per cent of the total patients.

He said of the 758 new cases in Sindh, Karachi had 555, of which 137 belonged to District East, 124 to District Central, 107 to District South, 72 to District Korangi, 72 to District Malir and 58 belonged to District West.

About the rest of Sindh, the CM 33 new cases had been diagnosed in Hyderabad, 26 in Larkana, 16 in Matiari, six in Tando Mohammad khan, five in Kamber-Shahdadkot, three each in Dadu, Ghotki and Jacobabad, two each in Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Shaheed Benazirabad, Shikarpur and Jamshoro, and one each in Tharparkar, Kashmore-kandhkot, Naushehroferoze, Sujawal, and Thatta.

Talking about Larkana, Shah said four deaths from the novel coronavirus had been established there while it was also being suspected that eight other deaths in a Mohalla were also caused by the contagious disease.

“We have collected 105 samples of contacts of the eight persons who died due to unknown reasons for laboratory tests and their results are awaited,” he added.

Shah also lamented the people resisting giving their samples for lab tests. “This is a result of the baseless propaganda under which people on social media are seen saying coronavirus is nothing and it is a conspiracy while others are saying that fake tests are being conducted,” he said and pleaded to the people to understand the gravity of the situation as many people had died of the infection.

The CM deplored a similar propaganda in Pir-jo-Goth, Khairpur, where people had been misguided that fake tests were being conducted by the government. “I am fighting for the lives and health of the people but some people without caring about the lives of others are playing politics for their vested interests.”

The CM urged the people not to be influenced by the propaganda and take care of themselves and others. He hoped that everyone would cooperate with the government to help make its efforts against the disease succeed.