23 persons, including three senior doctors, fall prey to Covid-19 in Sindh

KARACHI: Three senior doctors were among 23 people who died due to the coronavirus infection in Sindh between Thursday and Friday, raising the Covid-19 death toll in the province to 3,132, said provincial health officials on Friday.

They added that 873 patients of Covid-19 were under treatment at various health facilities in the province, of whom the condition of 777 was serious while 94 were on life support.

Officials said a former director general (DG) health of Sindh, a retired anaesthetist of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and a senior paediatrician were the three senior doctors who passed away due to COVID-19 and its complications at different health facilities in the province.

Former DG health Dr Abdus Sattar Korani was also a senior ENT specialist. He was under treatment at a private hospital where he died on the night between Thursday and Friday. Senior paediatrician Dr Waseemuddin and former JPMC anaesthetist Dr Tahir Amin Chaudhry were also under treatment for COVID-19 when they passed away.

According to the Pakistan Medical Association and Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, over 11,000 healthcare workers have so far contracted COVID-19 in Pakistan, of whom over 180 healthcare providers, including doctors, paramedics and nurses, have lost their lives due to the infectious illness. Most of them died in Karachi.

In the meantime, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday said that 23 more patients of the coronavirus infection died during the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 3,132, while 1,489 new cases emerged after 11,537 samples were tested.

In his daily report on the COVID-19 situation on Friday, he said 23 more patients had died in Sindh during last 24 hours, lifting the death toll to 3,132 that constituted a 1.6 per cent mortality rate.

The CM explained that after the diagnosis of 1,489 cases through testing of 11,537 samples, the current Covid-19 detection rate stood at 12.9 per cent. He added that so far 2,124,583 tests had been conducted, against which 192,735 cases were detected, of whom 86 per cent or 165,466 patients had recovered.

Shah said there were currently 24,137 patients of Covid-19 in Sindh, of whom 24,248 were in home isolation, 16 at isolation centres and 873 at different hospitals. He added that of the 1,489 new Covid-19 cases in Sindh, 1,067 were detected from Karachi, including 364 from District South, 341 from District East, 150 from District Central, 88 from District Korangi, 63 from District West and 61 from District Malir.

In the rest of Sindh, Hyderabad had 45 new cases, Badin and Shaheed Benazirabad 22 each, Mirpurkhas 17, Jamshoro, Tando Allahyar and Thatta 15 each, Ghotki, Khairpur, Larkana, Matiari and Tando Mohammad Khan 14 each, Jacobabad 13, Sujawal 12, Kamber-Shahdadkot eight, Shikarpur and Sukkur five each, Umerkot three, and Kashmore and Naushero Feroz two each.

The CM urged the people of Sindh to abide by the SOPs issued by the government to remain protected from the viral ailment, which had been surging with each passing day.