Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in his video message released from the CM House on Tuesday said for the first time his government has conducted over 4112 tests against which 335 new cases have emerged while seven patients succumbed to the Covid-19 infection.

He said so far 48,061 tests have been conducted against which 5291 cases were detected. In this way the infection ratio has come down from 12 percent to 8.15 percent. "This is something encouraging but we have to take care of ourselves and of our families and other people," he said.

CM Shah said seven people died on Tuesday, thus the number of deaths stemming from Covid-19 has reached to 92 which constituted 1.73 percent of the total patients. "yes, 38 more patients recovered and returned to their respective homes," he said and added the number of patients who have recovered so far has reached to 963. The recovery rate has been recorded at 18.2 percent, he said.

According to the CM, 4236 patients were under treatment including 2915 at home isolation, 872 in isolation centres and 449 at different hospitals. He added that 48 patients were in critical condition and of them 13 were on ventilator.

Karachi: Giving district-wise breakup of the patients, the chief minister said Karachi has 258 new cases. "At present out of 5291 cases, 1609 belong to Karachi, therefore it has to be contained," he said.

CM said district South has 1037 with 89 new cases, East 821 cases including 53 new, Central has 655 cases with43 new, Malir 312 cases with 21 new, West 392 cases with 24 new and Korangi has 392 with 28 new cases. "This is not a good situation and every one of us will have to be careful," he said.

Talking about other districts, the chief minister said new 17 cases have been diagnosed in Hyderabad, 10 Jacobabad, seven Sukkur, seven Sikarpur, six Shaheed Benazirabad, six Tando Mohamamd Khan and five in Larkana.

He said Covid-19 has started spreading in rural areas. "Despite our serious efforts people do not adopt social distancing, as result they are not only getting infection but also infecting others," he deplored.

The CM said he was developing additional isolation centers. The capacity of Expo Centre is being enhanced from 1200 to 1500 beds, PAF Museum SITE 600 beds, Gadap City Hospital 150 beds, Dumba Goth Hospital 100 beds and field isolation centres 100 beds.

Shah said with increase of new patients, expansion of isolation centers was necessary so that patients from congested areas could be shifted there.