KARACHI: The number of cases had increased by 30 percent last year during Eid holidays said the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday making an appeal to the people to stay home on the coming Eid.
“I would suggest to all the people to stay home and enjoy your Eid with your immediate family members – this is the only way to contain the virus and save others.” CM said while presiding over a meeting of the Provincial Task Force on Coronavirus at CM House.
The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Syed Nasir Shah, Jam Ikram, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab, Parliamentary Secretary Qasim Siraj Soomro, Chief secretary Mumtaz Shah, IG Sindh Mushtaq Maher, ACS Home Usman Chachar, Commissioner Karachi Naveed Shaikh, 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 Bari, Dr Faisal, Dr Sajjad Qaiser, VC Dow Dr Saeed Qureshi and representatives of Corps 5, Rangers and WHO.
At the outset of the meeting, a comparison of the Covid-19 cases during holidays of last Eidul Fitr was made which showed a 30 percent increase in the positive cases. The last Eidul Fitr was celebrated on May 24, 2020 and on that day there were 846 or 15 percent positive cases. Just after Eid, the ratio of positive cases went on increasing and within 18 days it reached 3,038 cases, which was a 30 percent ratio. The meeting observed that the reason behind the abnormal spike in cases was violation of SOPs.
Therefore, the chief minister urged people of the province to celebrate Eid with their immediate family members and avoid meeting with relatives. “This is the only way to protect everyone,” he said.
Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi sharing the data of last Ramazan, from April 24 to May 2020, said that in the first week of Ramazan, 12.57 percent new cases were detected with 44 patients have died. In the second week the detection ratio increased to 14.34 percent with 50 deaths. In the third week the detection ratio was 15.49 percent with 79 deaths and in the fourth week 16.99 percent new cases emerged with 77 new cases. In other words, 15,554 cases were reported against 103,433 tests which showed an overall 15.04 percent detection rate, and 250 patients lost their lives.
Analyzing the indicators of current month of Ramazan, from April 12 to May 9, 2021, the meeting was told that in the first week of Ramazan 4.71 percent new cases were detected with 23 deaths, in the second week 6.31 percent cases with 43 deaths, in the third week 6.96 percent cases and 62 deaths and in the fourth week 7.08 percent cases and 64 deaths. To sum up, 370,096 tests were conducted during the Ramazan against which 23,551 cases were detected that constituted 6.36 percent cases with 192 deaths.
District-wise cases: Sharing the weekly district-wise positive cases data, Minister Health Dr Azra Pechuho said that District East of Karachi has 23 percent cases, South 15 percent, Central-Karachi and Hyderabad 11 percent each, Dadu nine percent, Sukkur, Larkana, Ghotki, Malir and West of Karachi have six percent cases. Korangi has five percent, Mirpurkhas four percent, Thatta, Kashmore, Badin and Khairpur three percent each.
Vaccination Centres: The meeting decided that the vaccination centres would be functioning as usual during the Eid holidays.
The chief minister urged the people to get themselves vaccinated.
Vaccinations: The provincial government has received 8,62,000 doses of Sinopharm, 11,000 Casino, 80,000 SinoVac and 107,500 AstraZeneca. All the received doses have been provided to the vaccination centres.
Takeaway: The chief minister in consultation with the participants of the meeting decided to allow restaurants to offer takeaway service but with SOPs. At the restaurant, nobody would get out of the vehicle to collect the food, but they would be given by the restaurant staff. And no restaurant would place chairs for dining or just sitting at the restaurant. “We would seal the restaurants in case of violation of the SOPs”.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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