Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that 383 new cases of coronavirus have been detected during last 24 hours which is the first highest figures of last 61 days of coronavirus emergency, February 26 to April 26.

Karachi was the worst affected division of the province with 301 new cases. He added that district Central has 594 cases with 99 new. District East has 676 cases including 66 new, Korangi has 318 cases with 26 new cases, Malir has 272 cases with 10 new, South has 895 cases with 80 cases and West has 322 cases with 20 new cases.

In his video message, the chief minister disclosed that 3028 tests were conducted against which 383 cases, including 301 cases in Karachi were detected which constituted 12 percent of the tests. "This is the highest figure ever reported during the 61 days COVID-19 emergency," he said and added, "This shows the situation is going from bad to worse and we will have to take some extra-ordinary measures."

He said that so far 41216 tests have been conducted against which 4615 cases or 11.2 percent have been diagnosed as positive.

Shah also said that three more patients died due to coronavirus infection and lifted the death toll to 81 or 1.8 percent of the total patients.

He added that at present, 3662 patients were under treatment, of them 2432 of 66 percent in Home Isolation, 767 or 21 percent at Isolation centres and 463 or 13 percent in different hospitals.

The chief minister said that 41 patients were in critical condition and 12 of them were on ventilators. "The doctors were struggling to save their lives," he said. He added that 70 patients recovered and were discharged for their homes. "Our 872 or 18.9 percent patients have recovered so far," he said.

He said that the province of Sindh has 4615 cases, of them 3077 were in Karachi. "This is a serious situation," he said and added he would have to establish more filed hospitals/Isolation Centres.

Two flights land

Shah said that two more flights from Malaysia and Dubai have landed in Karachi. He added that both the flights have brought 505 stranded Pakistanis and all of them have been kept quarantined. He said that health department has started collecting their samples to test them and by Monday their results would come out.

Another meeting

The chief minister just after going through the coronavirus situation report, he called another meeting of health department which was attended by provincial ministers, chief secretary, commissioner Karachi and deputy commissioners.

The chief minister said that the number of new patients was increasing day by day, therefore, the government would have to enhance bed capacity of Isolation Centres by enhancing the capacity of the exiting field offices and establishing new centres.

Shah directed Commissioner Karachi to prepare a plan to enhance the capacity of Expo Centre Field hospital from 1200 to 1500. He also issued directive for setting up Isolation Centre at PAF Museum Convention Centre, Dalmia ground, Darul Ehsas Manghopir and other areas.

The chief minister assigned the task of exploring other empty buildings and grounds to Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem where Isolation centres/field hospitals could be established.

He said that the target set for setting up 10,000-beded facilities should be achieved. He also directed for keeping reviewing the equipment requirement and the requirement of doctors and paramedical staff for the proposed facilities.

Video-link meeting

Presiding over a meeting of divisions and districts, other than Karachi he reviewed the sampling methods, availability of testing kits and directed them to start extensive testing.

The chief minister said that 17 cases have been detected in Sukkur, seven Hyderabad, two each in Khairpur, Thatta, Badin, Matiari, Mirpurkhas and, one each in Dadu, Jamshro, Mirpurkhas, and Larkana.

Shah directed Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho to send special teams of lab experts to visit each and every district to guide them for collecting of samples. "May be collection of samples not upto mark," he said.

The chief minister directed all the deputy commissioners to improve their health facilities, encourage people to adopt social distancing in their respective areas.