Senior doctor succumbs to COVID-19 as 188 new cases emerge

Another doctor has died due to COVID-19 and 188 more cases have been reported during the past 24 hours in Sindh, with the death toll due to the viral disease reaching 2,432 in the province.

A health department official said on Sunday that 57-year-old Dr Moinuddin Shaikh, a senior doctor from Nawabshah who was associated with the Indus Health Network, lost his battle against COVID-19 at the Sindh Institute of Urology & Transplantation in Karachi.

Dr Shaikh, also a former district health officer, was laid to rest in accordance with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in his home town, added the official. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said in his daily situation report on the health emergency that 8,999 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, resulting in 188 people, or 2.1 per cent of those who were screened, being diagnosed with COVID-19.

The provincial government has so far conducted 1,055,050 tests, which have resulted in 130,671 positive cases, which means that 12.4 per cent of those screened have been found to be infected, he added.

Shah said that after the latest deaths, the rate of the diagnosed people who have lost their fight with COVID-19 stands at two per cent. He said that 2,035 patients are currently under treatment: 1,700 in self-isolation at home, seven at isolation centres and 328 at hospitals, while 154 patients are in critical condition, of whom 15 are on life support.

He added that 49 more people have recovered during the past 24 hours, increasing the number of cured patients to 126,213, which shows a 96.6 per cent recovery rate. The CM said that out of the 188 fresh cases of Sindh, 115 (or 61.2 per cent) have been reported in Karachi: 60 new patients belong to District South, 24 to District East, 13 to District Korangi, eight to District Central, six to District West and four to District Malir.

Thatta has reported 12 new cases, Badin nine, Khairpur eight, Hyderabad and Tando Mohammad Khan four each, Kashmore and Tando Allahyar three each, Sukkur, Kambar, Larkana and Sanghar two each, and Ghotki, Jacobabad, Jamshoro, Matiari, Shaheed Benazirabad and Shikarpur one each, he added.

The chief executive urged the people of the province to comply with the SOPs devised by the government in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, including wearing face masks, washing hands with soap or cleaning them with hand sanitiser, and avoiding shaking hands.