Coronavirus Update: Rise in interior Sindh cases

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The interior districts of Sindh witnessed significant increase in COVID-19 daily infection rate on July 5, when the health authorities confirmed 2,222 new infections during the last 24 hours across the province, with 25 more relevant fatalities.

According to the health department data, as of July 5, Karachi contributed 1,030 (46%) new cases to the overall daily tally of cases, while 1,150 (57%) new cases were reported from the interior districts. 

Earlier, Karachi reported 91% of the total new infections of Sindh on June 26, against 80% new cases on June 22, which had reduced to 45% on June 25. 

According to the data, as of July 5, among the interior districts, Ghotki reported the maximum 293 COVID-19 new cases, followed by Sukkur (128), Kambar Shahdadkot (80), Shaheed Benazirabad (75) and Dadu (73). 

The breakdown of other districts who reported new cases remained as: Khairpur (61), Badin (57), Tando Mohammad Khan (54), Sanghar (51), Kashmore (50), Hyderabad (50), Larkana (48), Mirpurkhas (37), Tando Allahyar (36), Shikarpur (33), Jacobabad (15), Matiari (14), Jamshoro (11), Naushero Feroze (11), Thatta (6), Sujawal (5) and Umerkot (4). 

According to the health department’s summary, 21 patients died due to COVID-19 during the last 24 hours ending at 9 am on July 5, including 15 men and six women. Men’s ages ranged from 48 to 90 years, while that of women were from 61 to 89 years. 

Sukkur registered death of a man of 75 years and a woman of 60 years, while Sujawal and Ghotki reported demise of one man each, both aged 50 years. 

The summary further disclosed that 623 patients, out of 39,837 active cases, were in critical condition across the province. The overall tally of infections rose to 94,528 and fatalities to 1,526 for the province. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Sindh sub-office COVID-19 report, testing laboratories in the province conducted 10,669 tests for the virus on July 4, against their collective capacity for examining 13,850 samples a day.

The sub-office reported that the largest number of intensive care units (ICU) beds was in Karachi (273), with 19% vacancy on July 4, against 366 ICU beds available at various health centres across the province. The percentage of patients who are on ventilators was 26% in Karachi, 8% in Sukkur and 4% in Larkana.

In regard to distribution of high dependency units (HDU) beds in districts of Sindh as of July 4, the report said that there were total 1,134 beds, out of which the biggest number of HDU beds was in Karachi (816), with 63% vacancy. Overall the HDU capacity has further increased but the newly added are not fully functional and are expected to take occupancy soon, it was noted in the report.

As of July 4, Karachi’s East district had the highest number of fatalities (396), 26 percent of the total deaths in the province, followed by Karachi Central (276), Karachi South (235), Karachi West (148), Karachi Korangi (117), Karachi Malir (91), Hyderabad (46), Larkana (28) and other districts, according to the WHO report, which covered a period from March 10 to July 4, 2020.