17 more fall prey to Covid-19 as another 556 test positive in Sindh

Covid-19 has claimed 17 more lives in Sindh, mostly in Karachi, during the last 24 hours, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Thursday in his daily statement on the pandemic situation in the province.

He explained that the death toll due to the infectious disease in the province had reached 2,664. A total of 556 people tested positive for the infectious disease in the province in 24 hours after 11,530 people were screened for the coronavirus infection, Shah said, adding that at least 416 people tested positive in Karachi alone.

He said that after the 17 deaths, the mortality rate of Covid-19 in the province was 1.8 per cent. The CM maintained that so far 1,693,488 Covid-19 tests had been conducted in Sindh, which detected 148,343 cases, of which 95 per cent or 139,866 people had recovered, including 233 during last 24 hours.

He said that currently 5,813 patients of Covid-19 were under treatment, of whom 5,534 were in home isolation, four at isolation centres and 275 at different hospitals. He added that the condition of 201 patients was stated to be critical, of whom 30 had been shifted onto ventilators.

According to the CM, of the 556 new cases, 416 were detected in Karachi, including 170 in District East, 163 in District South, 43 in District Central, 17 in District Korangi, 15 in District Malir and eight in District West.

In the rest of Sindh, Hyderabad recorded 20 new cases, Kamber-Shahdadkot and Shaheed Benazirabad 12 each, Jamshoro 11, Tando Mohammad Khan and Thatta eight each, Sanghar seven, Mirpurkhas six, Badin four, Sukkur, Tando Allahyar and Umerkot five each, Ghotki and Shikarpur three each, Dadu, Jacobabad and Khairpur two each, and Larkana, Matiari, Naushehro Feroz and Sujawal recorded one new case of COVID-19 each.

The CM asked the people of Sindh to observe standard operating procedures (SOPs) because the novel coronavirus was again spreading widely.