Corona kills 33 more countrywide in 24 hours

KARACHI: The coronavirus disease continues to tighten its stranglehold with the number of new deaths rising to 33 in the last 24 hours in the country. The number of deaths and positive cases rose to 7,193 and 361,082 respectively, with the number of new cases rising to 2,050.

A total of 324,834 patients have recovered so far with the number of active cases standing at 29,055. Around 1,447 patients are in critical condition.

AJK reported 5,538 confirmed cases, Balochistan 16,449, GB 4,461, Islamabad 24,444, KP 42,615, Punjab 111,047 and Sindh 156,528, say media reports.

The number of active cases in AJK stands at 1,336, 391 in Balochistan, 161 in GB, 3,686 in Islamabad, 2,190 in KP, 10,766 in Punjab and 10,525 in Sindh. Meanwhile,sharing daily coronavirus situation with the media, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said nine more patients had died in the province lifting the death toll to 2,760 and new cases to 904.

Shah said 12,430 samples were tested which diagnosed 904 cases constituting 7.3 percent current detection rate. He said so far 1,832,857 tests had been conducted while 143,652 patients had recovered.

He said currently 11,020 patients were under treatment of whom 10,505 were in home isolation, five at isolation centers and 510 in different hospitals. He said the condition of 422 patients was critical, of whom 40 had been put on the ventilator.

According to the CM, out of 904 new patients, 610 were detected in Karachi, 247 in Karachi Central, 160 in Karachi South, 56 in Malir and 10 in Karachi West. Shah urged people to stay safe by washing or sanitizing hands, wearing masks and avoiding handshake.

Meanwhile, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has decided to reimpose a lockdown across the territory for two weeks in the wake of an alarming spike in cases. The lockdown will come into effect from 12am on Sunday (November 22) and will last until 12pm on December 6.

Public transport, however, will be allowed to operate with “strict” adherence to the standard operating procedures. This was decided by the AJK cabinet on Tuesday in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider.

“This difficult decision was inevitable, as the situation with regard to the spike in Covid-19 in a small territory like ours had become alarming,” senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq said at a media briefing.