Covid-19 positivity touches 15.44 per cent in Karachi

Covid-19 cases are continuously on the rise in Karachi due to sub-variants of Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 or coronavirus as positivity of the cases reached 15.44 per cent in the city after 67 more people tested positive for the viral infection, officials said on Wednesday.

“With 67 of 434 people testing positive for COVID-19 in Karachi, the positivity rate of cases has reached 15.44 per cent,” an official of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad told The News and urged the people to take precautionary measures, including wearing masks in crowded places.

Health experts and officials in Karachi also confirmed a slight but steady increase in hospitalisation due to COVID-19, saying mostly elderly people who were not vaccinated had been testing positive for the contagious disease after they were brought to public and private health facilities in the city with fever and respiratory distress.

Officials at some private hospitals in Karachi said that positivity of the cases at some hospital labs was double compared to the ratio being reported by the NIH for Karachi. They said hospitalisation of patients infected with Covid-19 had been increasing with each passing day.

Infectious diseases expert Dr Faisal Mahmood told The News that two sub-variants of Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus were responsible for the increase in Covid-19 cases in Karachi. He advised people to take precautionary measures including wearing masks and staying away from crowded places.

Urging people to get the booster doses of the Covid-19 vaccines, he said those who were unvaccinated or who had not completed their vaccination were more at risk of contracting the disease.