Sindh bans public activity after 8pm

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: On the recommendations of provincial Task Force on COVID-19, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah Monday announced to impose a ban on movement of people either on foot or in the vehicles from Tuesday to contain the spread of viral disease and directed the provincial administration to implement the ban in letter and spirit.

“Owing to its severity of the COVID-19 situation, a ban on unnecessary movement of people, either on foot or in vehicles, has been imposed after 8 pm. Only those with valid reasons would be allowed to move in the province”, Syed Murad Ali Shah said while presiding over a meeting of COVID-19 Task Force.

The meeting which was held at CM House was attended by provincial ministers, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Saeed Ghani, Jam, Ikram, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, IG Sindh Mushtaq Maher, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Commissioner Karachi Naveed Shaikh, Adl IG Karachi Imran Minhas, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, Secretary School Education Ahmed Bux Narejo, Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi, Dr Abdul Bari, Dr Faisal, Dr Sara Khan of WHO, Dr Sajjad Qasier of PMA, representatives of Corps-5, Rangers and other concerned institutions.

The meeting was told that during the last one-week (May 17 to 23, 2021) coronavirus has badly affected district East where 21 percent cases and 19 deaths have been reported. District South has 16 percent cases and nine deaths, Central 10 percent cases with 12 deaths. Hyderabad has 11 percent cases with 22 deaths.

According to the weekly report, Karachi has a 12.67 percent detection rate, Hyderabad 10.79 percent and the rest of the province 4.53 percent. In the month of May so far, 261 patients of coronavirus have lost their lives which is higher than the previous months of March and April when 151 and 154 deaths were recorded respectively.

It was revealed that during the last 24 hours, Sindh has 1,529 patients, Punjab 802, KPK 470, Islamabad 106, Gilgit-Baltistan 18, Balochistan 66 and AJK 69. This shows Sindh has the highest number of COVID cases in the country, the CM said.

The chief minister, taking policy decisions, decided that people would not be allowed to move in the city without any valid reason after 8 pm from Tuesday. He directed the administration and the police not to allow the people to keep moving in the city without any solid reason. Murad Ali Shah urged people of the province to stay home in their interest and in the interest of others.

The CM said that the shops would be closed at 6 pm and then two hours would be given to the people to return to their homes. “After 8pm the police would place barriers on the roads to discourage unnecessary public movement. He directed the district administrations to switch off lights of the jogging parks at 8 pm.

The chief minister directed Minister Labour Saeed Ghani and Minister Industries Jam Ikram Dharejo to talk to the industrialists or with their associations to support the government for launching mass vaccination of their workers in their industrial areas.

The chief minister warned the administration to be strict in implementation of the SOPs and the restrictions the government has notified, otherwise he would take strict action. “I’ll personally pay surprise visits to the city to witness implementation of the restrictions,” he said.

Meanwhile, the national tally on Monday of total active COVID-19 cases recorded 62,917 with 3,060 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 2,693 people recovered from the disease during the last 24 hours.

Fifty-seven corona patients have died during past 24 hours, 52 of whom were under treatment in hospital and five out of the hospital in their respective quarantines or homes, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

During the past 24 hours, most of the deaths have occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa followed by the Punjab. Out of the total 57 deaths occurred in the last 24 hours 17 of them had died who were under treatment on ventilators.

There were 4,367 Covid infected patients under treatment in critical care in various COVID dedicated healthcare facilities in past 24 hours. The National COVID positivity ratio during past 24 hours was recorded 5.21 percent.

It may be mentioned here that the COVID positivity ratio was the percentage of actual positive cases appearing in every 100 tests performed to identify infected individuals. According to John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the percent positive will be high if the number of positive tests is too high, or if the number of total tests is too low.

The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Lahore 43 percent, Multan 67 percent, Bahawalpur 40 percent and Peshawar 35 percent. The maximum Oxygen beds (alternate oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per medical requirement of COVID patient) was also occupied in four major areas of Bahawalpur 37 percent, Swabi 47 percent, Peshawar 39 percent and Multan 59 percent.

Around 506 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no COVID affected person was on ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan.

Some 58,670 tests were conducted across the country on Sunday, including 21,808 in Sindh, 22,735 in Punjab, 7,533 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 4,162 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,254 in Balochistan, 458 in GB, and 720 in AJK.

Around 820,374 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients. Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 903,599 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 18,808, Balochistan 24,583, GB 5,500, ICT 80,418, KP 129,883, Punjab 334,760 and Sindh 309,647. About 20,308 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion.

Around 4,920 have perished in Sindh among nine of them died in hospital and two out of hospital on Sunday. 9,784 in Punjab had died with 16 deaths occurred in past 24 hours. 13 of them in the hospital and three out of hospital. 3,950 in KP where 26 of them died in hospital on Sunday, 745 in ICT, 270 in Balochistan, 107 in GB and 532 in AJK among four of them succumbed to the deadly virus in hospital on Sunday.

A total of 12,837,818 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Some 4,763 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.