With 22 more victims, Sindh’s COVID-19 death toll nears 2,000

Twenty-two more people have died due to COVID-19 and another 880 cases have been reported during the past 24 hours in Sindh, with the death toll due to the viral disease reaching 1,974 in the province.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said in his daily situation report on the health emergency on Saturday that 9,270 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, resulting in 880 people, or 9.5 per cent of those who were screened, being diagnosed with COVID-19.

“This is good news. Our detection rate is decreasing,” said Shah. The provincial government has so far conducted 634,871 tests, which have resulted in 112,118 positive cases, which means that 18 per cent of those screened have been found to be infected, he added.

The chief executive said that after the latest deaths, the percentage of the diagnosed people who have lost their fight with COVID-19 has climbed to 1.8 per cent. He said the death rate needed to be brought down, so services at hospitals and isolation centres have been improved.

He also said that 18,761 patients are currently under treatment: 17,938 in self-isolation at home, 79 at isolation centres and 744 at hospitals, while 526 patients are in critical condition, of whom 72 are on life support.

He added that the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients has been increasing, which is evident from 3,280 more patients being cured overnight, raising the number of recovered patients to 91,383, which shows an 82 per cent recovery rate.

Shah said that of Sindh’s 880 fresh cases, 267 (or 30.3 per cent) have been reported in Karachi Division: 80 of the new patients belong to District East, 59 to District South, 51 to District Central, 37 to District Malir, 31 to District West and nine to District Korangi.

He added that Hyderabad has reported 67 new cases, Khairpur 42, Sanghar 37, Sukkur 31, Shaheed Benazirabad 28, Mirpurkhas and Sujawal 22 each, Ghotki 21, Naushehroferoze 20, Badin 15, Kambar and Kashmore 13 each, Larkana 12, Shikarpur 11, Jacobabad, Matiari and Thatta seven each, Jamshoro and Tando Mohammad Khan six each, and Umerkot two.