Sindh government informs SC: Covid-19 cases in 11 UCs were mostly foreign transmitted

The Sindh government has informed the Supreme Court that the coronavirus cases in 11 union councils of Karachi were mostly foreign transmitted from zaireen (pilgrims) and those who returned after performing Umrah.

In pursuance of the Supreme Court order dated April 13, 2020, Sindh, Punjab, the KP, and Balochistan governments have filed reports.

The Sindh report says that social distancing remains the mainstay of keeping the pandemic disease from further transmission, and thus a lockdown was implemented by the Government of Sindh throughout province.

However, general masses did not comply in letter and spirit therefore; District East remained the most-affected area in entire Karachi, having reported 100 cases in first 14 days of April 2020.

Geo-mapping of all houses and streets was carried out in Union Committees from where recent coronavirus cases were reported.

Check points were established to clamp down on intra- and inter-UC movements for seven days.

Special passes are issued by the District Administration to all essential services.

Only those supplying essential services are allowed entry.

A thorough scanning and sanitization of houses are carried out in all lockdown UCs.

The report said that the Sindh government is making all out efforts to ensure the safety and protection of frontline workers including medics, paramedics, nursing, auxiliary and janitorial staff; working in all quarantine, isolation and ICUs throughout the province. There are four sources of supplies of the PPEs viz Health Department/PDMA, DG Health Sindh, and the NDMA.

It further said that the provincial government established "Hospital-Based Isolation Centres" in every district throughout the province with bed capacity of 2,422, having 791 doctors, 628 nurses, and 997 paramedics.

In addition to this, "Field Isolation Centers" with bed capacity of 2,633, having 278 doctors, 249 nurses and 284 paramedics throughout the province have also been established.

There are 383 working ventilators available in public-sector hospitals in the province of Sindh, out of which 144 have been reserved for the COVID-19 critical patients in 12 intensive care units (ICUs) established for the COVID-19 emergency and the number of patients admitted as of to date i.e.15th April, 2020 is 21.

The Sindh government so far released two financial tranches for procurement and distribution of ration bags - one, of Rs580 million released on March 26, 2020 and the other of Rs500 million released on April 6, 2020.

The so-called information of Rs8 billion released for the said purpose is denied as being a nefarious attempt to malign the Government of Sindh and to undermine its actions.

It may be seen that a total of 1,664,231 needy people of the province of Sindh will benefit from Ehsaas Emergency Cash Payments.

The Punjab report stated that Public transport, Railways and Air travel, have been prohibited by all the provinces including Punjab province to compel the populace to ensure social distancing.

All Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) procurements are being made through open bidding without any extra preference to imported material.

The training and distribution of the PPEs is monitored by the Hospital Infection Control Committee in each facility of primary and secondary healthcare departments in 125 THQ hospitals, and 26 DHQ hospitals across Punjab.

The ventilators are not being manufactured locally, and are imported from various countries with the Drug Regulatory Authorities such as the FDA, CE or Japan-based companies.

The Punjab report says that the Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) Department declared emergency under the Punjab Local Government Act 2019.

All the LGs in Punjab prepared their contingency plans in light of the instruction issued by the Punjab government.