Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that 535 patients of coronavirus recovered and against them 817 new cases emerged while 12 more patients died taking the death toll to 255.

"The situation seems to be critical in the sense that not only the recovery of patients was increasing but the ratio of new patients and death ratio were also on the increase." This he stated in a statement issued from CM House on Friday.

Analysing the situation of coronavirus, Murad Ali Shah said that for the first time our recovery rate has jumped from 22 percent to 24 percent when 535 patients were cured and discharged to their homes. Simultaneously, he said, the number of new patients, due to local transmission, which were 758 on Thursday increased to 817 on Friday.

"The increase in new cases depends on the number of tests - when number of tests is increased the number of new patients shows upsurge in the cases," he said and added, "this shows that the infected people exist and they keep infecting others, therefore, number of patients keep multiplying everyday."

Talking about deaths, Shah said that 75 deaths stemming from coronavirus were reported from May 9 to May 14. "This shows that on average more than 12 patients lose their lives everyday - this is not a good sign and needs to be controlled through self-protection and administrative measures," he said.

Similarly, he said, by Friday morning 535 patients recovered and discharged against them 817 new patients were admitted. "This shows that the pressure on our health system which should have been decreased with the discharge of 535 patients, we have to arrange another 282 beds to accommodate 817 new patients," he said.

Shah said that the patients who have been kept in home isolation were being frequently looked after by doctors and in case of emergency they were shifted to hospital. "My strategy is to contain the virus by isolating the patients and stop its further spread by implementing social distancing and other SOPs," he said and added this would be possible when people would cooperate and understand the situation.

Giving details of the patients, he said 11,055 were under treatment, of them 9651 of 87 percent were in home isolation, 887 or eight percent at Isolation Centres and 517 at different hospitals. "The figures show that five percent of the total patients are in hospitals, of them 21 percent or 107 are in critical condition while 35 have been put on the ventilators," he said.

According to the CM statement, out of 817 new cases 567 belonged to Karachi. Of 567 new cases diagnosed from the city, 139 belong to East, 125 Central, 115 South, 102 Malir, 52 West and 34 from district Korangi.

He said that at present there were 2470 in South, 2324 in East, 1925 in Central, 1508 in Malir, 982 in Korangi, 1289 in West.

Sharing the data of other districts, Shah said that 57 cases have been detected in Larkana, 23 in Sukkur, 22 in Khairpur, 19 in Kambar-Shahdadkot, 16 in Ghotki, 12 in Sanghar, 11 in Hyderabad, seven Jacobabad, three each in Jamshoro, Shaheed Benazirabad and Shikarpur and one in Tando Allahyar.

In Larkana the chief minister said that following eight deaths in a Mohalla, 122 samples of their contacts were taken, of them 35 have been diagnosed as positive. "We are tracing more contacts [of the dead and the newly infected] so that they could be tested," he said.

Shah said that 291 samples of Pir-jo-Goth were tested, of them 47 have been diagnosed as positive.

The chief minister urged the people of Sindh to be responsive to SOPs and other guidelines being given to them by experts and WHO time to time, otherwise we would not be able to defeat the pandemic.