20 perish in Sindh as coronavirus infects another 960

A total of 20 people passed away in Sindh due to COVID-19 between Wednesday and Thursday, said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah as he briefed media persons on Thursday on the pandemic situation in the province.

He said that of the 20 COVID-19 victims, 16 belonged to Karachi, which is the most affected city in the country.

“Unfortunately, we have lost 20 more people in Sindh during the last 24 hours, of whom 16 died in Karachi alone. Among these, three were females while 17 were men. In addition to Karachi, two deaths occurred in Larkana while one person each died in Sukkur and Khairpur,” the CM said.

He maintained that 960 new cases had been detected in the province after 6,003 samples were tested in the province during the last 24 hours, adding that so far, the government had conducted 143,543 tests, against which a total of 19,924 cases were detected.

After the 20 more deaths, the COVID-19 death toll in the province had risen to 336, which constituted 1.7 per cent of the total patients, the CM said. He added that 143 patients were currently in a critical state, of whom 33 were on ventilators.

At present, 13,263 patients were under treatment, Shah said, adding that 11,735 of them were in home isolation, 806 at the isolation centres and 722 in different hospitals.

According to the chief minister, 680 more patients had recovered between Wednesday and Thursday, after which the number of the recovered patients had reached 6,325.

He said of the new 960 coronavirus cases, 779 belonged to Karachi, of whom 233 were from District East, 169 from District South, 137 from District Central, 97 from District West, 86 from District Korangi and 57 from District Malir.

In the rest of Sindh, 22 new cases had been detected in Shikarpur, 17 in Hyderabad, 14 in Larkana, nine each in Sukkur and Kamber-Shahdadkot, seven in Ghotki, three each in Sanghar and Shaheed Benazirabad, two each in Jacobabad and Mirpurkhas, and one each in Dadu, Jamshoro, Naushehro Feroz and Sujawal, he said.

Compensation

The CM also stated that a compensation package would be announced for the front line workers who had lost their lives in the line of duty. “I will also give a similar compensation to the front line workers of the private sector by making necessary amendment in the law,” he said and added that the compensation package was under preparation.

He said the global experiences and ground realities had showed that the novel coronavirus affected thickly populated areas badly. “I am not talking only of Pakistan but all over the world this trend has been witnessed,” he said, adding that it was the reason why Karachi and Lahore had more cases than other areas of the country.

The chief minister also praised Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for guiding the Sindh government during the pandemic crisis.