Karachi hospitals brim over with corona patients

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: No beds were available for the COVID-19 patients at four leading public and private healthcare facilities in Karachi on Monday as the number of patients infected by the highly transmissible Delta variant continued to rise, officials said.

Officials said more beds were being reserved for patients, while closed facilities were also being made operational to deal with the surging cases. “Infectious Diseases Hospital and Research Center at NIPA, Indus Hospital Karachi, Aga Khan Hospital and Expo Center Karachi are packed to capacity.

The case positivity remained 25.7 percent in Karachi, according to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. The official said owing to growing number of cases, the administration of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) had reopened its dental hospital in front of the University of Karachi for COVID-19 patients, while an 80-bed pulmonology ward was also being converted into COVID-19 ward at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC).

“The Civil Hospital Karachi’s administration has also been directed to make all 43 ventilators functional, as only 23 were being used currently, the official said and added that due to prevalence of Delta variant, the number of patients was expected to rise further in the city.

The official maintained that at the moment, 1,026 patients were under treatment at different hospitals and of them the condition of 952 patients was critical, while 64 were on life support. He said instead of being on ventilators, a large number of patients were on high and low flow oxygen at the health facilities.

Two leading health facilities, including the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) and JPMC, have cancelled all the elective surgeries till further orders to prevent their healthcare workers and surgeons from contracting the infectious disease, officials at CHK and JPMC said.

In Karachi, 75 percent of the samples analyzed were found carrying Delta variant, officials of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) at International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi told The News.

Meanwhile, in his daily COVID-19 situation report on Monday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said as many as 17 more patients of coronavirus had died overnight lifting the death toll to 5,737. Around 1,247 new cases emerged when 11,794 tests were conducted, he added.

APP reports: Meanwhile, the national tally of active COVID-19 cases was Monday recorded as 48,850 with 2,452 more people testing positive and 903 recovering during the 24 hours. According to APP, around 30 corona patients died during the 24 hours out of which 28 were under treatment in hospitals and two in their respective homes or quarantine facility, according to the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC). Most of deaths were reported from Sindh followed by Punjab. Out of the total 30 patients who died, 21 were on the ventilator.