KARACHI (June 1): Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah disclosing daily situation report of Coronavirus on Monday said that the new month of June started with 22 deaths and detection of 1402 new cases.
He said that the death toll has reached to 503 and the number of cases has risen to 29647.
Giving details, the chief minister said that 6289 samples were tested which resulted in 1402 cases that constituted 22.3 percent. He added that so far his government has conducted 187,092 tests which detected 29,647 cases.
According to Mr Shah 22 more patients succumbed to the virus lifting the death toll to 503 that came to 1.7 percent. He added that 342 patients were in critical condition, of them 71 were on ventilators.
He said that at present 14554 patients of coronavirus were under treatment, including 13346 at home, 113 at Isolation centers and 1095 at different hospitals.
Mr Shah said that 785 patients have recovered during the last 24 hours and the number of patients recovered so far has reached to 14590 that showed 49.2 percent recovery rate.
Giving district-wise details of the cases, the chief minister said that out of 1402 cases, 1028 belonged to Karachi. Korangi has 292 cases, East 232, South 193, Central 165, West 101 and Malir 45.
Ghotki and Sukkur have 46 cases each, Larkana 38, Hyderabad 25, Mirpurkhas 21, Shikarpur 20, Jacobabad 12, eight each in Khairpur and Jamshoro, four each in Badin and Sujawal, two each in Thatta, Dadu and Naushehroferoze, each one in Umerkot, Shaheed Benazirabad and Kashmore-Kandhkot.
He warned the people of Sukkur, Larkana and Ghotki to follow the SOPs because the cases of local transmission were on the rise in their areas.
Plane crash: Sharing the details of plane crash, the chief minister said that out of 97 bodies, 87 have been handed over to the heirs. He added that at present four bodies were lying in the mortuary of Chhipa and six with Edhi.
According the chief minister, 48 bodies were identified through DNA while one sample was yet to be matched.
WHO rep meets CM: The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative for Pakistan Dr Palitha Mahipala called on Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and discuss coronavirus situation in Pakistan, particularly in Sindh.
The meeting was attended by Minister Health Dr Azra Pechuho, Dr Sara Khan of WHO and Principal Secretary to CM, Sajid Jamal Abro.
The chief minister said that he has enhanced testing capacity from to 200 to 6600 per day. He added that he was establishing two separate hospitals of Coronavirus Infectious Disease in Karachi with a capacity of 250 beds while similar health facilities would also be established in other divisional headquarters of the province.
The WHO country chief appreciated the efforts of the Sindh government in containing the virus and slowing its spread. He urged the chief minister to take strict measures to force the people to adopt precautionary measures.
The chief minister thanked the WHO for supporting and guiding his government to fight against the coronavirus. He urged the WHO representative to impart training programme for the doctors, para-medicals staff and nurses dealing the COVID-19 cases.
Dr Paliha assured the chief minister that his organization would be supporting Sindh government in all aspects, including training.