Beijing confirms two new COVID-19 cases

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Beijing confirmed two new COVID-19 cases on June 12 in the city's Fengtai district, both cases being employees from the same workplace, a senior district official revealed.

The two newly added novel coronavirus patients, both Beijing residents and employees at the China Meat Food Integrated Research Centre, tested positive for the coronavirus on June 12 and were sent to designated hospitals for quarantine and further medical treatment, Zhang Jie, deputy district head of Fengtai, disclosed at a news briefing held in Beijing. 

One patient, surnamed Liu, had been to Qingdao, Shandong province on a business trip for five days over the last two weeks but the patient reportedly did not have any close contact with overseas travelers or returnees from Hubei province. 

The other patient, surnamed Yin, also didn't have any contact with inbound travelers or returnees from Hubei province over the past two weeks, according to Zhang. Epidemiological investigations are underway in Fengtai district, Zhang said, adding sampling and screening had been conducted at places where the patients had been previously.

Enclosed management will also be implemented and strengthened at the neighborhood communities and workplaces of the patients, Zhang added. 

The capital had confirmed three new novel coronavirus cases on June 11 and 12, with the first in Xicheng after the capital had reported no new locally transmitted cases for 56 consecutive days. 

One of the two close contacts of the confirmed case in Xicheng is a fourth-grade student, the capital health authority declared. So far, all students and teachers in the class of the fourth-grade student have tested negative for the virus, said Miao Jianhong, deputy director of the capital's Xicheng district.

COVID-19 patients undergo successful lung transplants in China

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

At least six COVID-19 patients have undergone lung transplants in China as a final option to save virus patients in critical condition, with medical costs totaling more than 7 million Yuan ($1.1 million) taken care of by the state.

The health experts recognized that this act was another reflection of China’s commitment of saving human lives with every possible means, 

The COVID-19 patients who received lung transplants ranged from 55 to 73 years of age, Huang Jiefu, head of the China National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee and chairman of the China Organ Transplantation Development Foundation, told the Global Times at an event concerning Chinese organ donation. 

Huang said that the organ transplants are the final option to save COVID-19 patients in critical condition. "Lung transplants are the last choice for those who cannot be saved by respirators or ECMO machines," he remarked, noting that there were certain standards patients had to meet before undergoing transplant. 

Only those who suffered lung failure after recovering from the virus can undergo lung transplant while the doctors have to be highly protected in case of infection. 

Chen Jingyu, a renowned lung transplant expert, who performed China's first double-lung transplant on a novel coronavirus patient, revealed that before the first operation, he and his team were not sure whether lung transplants were a feasible way to cure patients as the virus was highly contagious. 

"But later, although these patients tested negative for the virus, it had caused lung fibrosis and they would have died had effective measures not been taken," he narrated. 

On February 29, he performed China's first double-lung transplant on a COVID-19 patient at a hospital in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Later in March, he successfully replaced a 73-year-old COVID-19 patient's lung. 

Chen shared that operating on patients was a greater challenge as many had contracted the virus earlier and been hospitalized longer than patients elsewhere in China. 

Despite the great difficulties, Chen and his team successfully performed organ transplants for two patients in Wuhan, one of them 65-year-old Cui Zhiqiang who had been breathing with the assistance of an ECMO machine for more than 60 days. Chen added that the risk and cost of performing an organ transplant on a COVID-19 patient was much higher than a normal organ transplant. 

"The medical personnel were highly protected. We even wore headgear, which made it impossible for us to communicate during the operations. After a surgery was complete, a patient required 24 hours of nonstop medical observation. The cost is incalculable." 

According to Huang, each patient's treatment cost 1.24 million Yuan, and their expenses were covered entirely by the government. "I believe this shows how the Chinese government has prioritized people's lives, and how it will utilize every means to save lives," he highlighted. 

Chen stated that his paper on lung transplants for COVID-19 patients has drawn international attention. His team held video conferences in April with medical experts from Duke University in the US. Medics from Cleveland in the US and Milan in Italy have also asked him how to select COVID-19 patients for lung transplant and how to protect patients and surgeons during the operations.

In late May, doctors in Milan successfully completed a double lung transplant on a novel coronavirus patient, marking the first such operation in Italy. The doctor immediately contacted Chen, expressing gratitude for his inspiration.

Coronavirus Update: Infection rate dips

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Sindh’s daily COVID-19 infection rate dipped in by 9%, in comparison to 30% registered the preceding day (June 11), as the provincial health authorities declared 2,428 (21%) samples positive for the lethal virus, out of 11,356 tests conducted during the last 24 hours across the province on June 12. 

The province recorded reduction in the daily coronavirus infection cases after three-day spike. The daily infection rate, as per the official data, came 25 % for two days (June 9, 10) and then spiked to 30% on June 11, when 3,038, out of 10,081 people suspected for the diseases tested positive.

The overall rate of infection in the case of Sindh remained 17.77% on June 12, against the national’s 15.56%, the data further revealed that Pakistan’s daily infection rate was 22.56% on June 12. 

In the meantime, Sindh added 17 deaths in the latest coronavirus report, pushing its toll to 793. 

The number of patients who recovered from the diseases climbed to 23,113, which accounted for 47 % of all COVID-19 infections in the province (49,256) since February 26 when the province reported its first infection in a man resident of Karachi. 

 Keen observers saw the slide in new infections in two ways; first, according to them, if the rate has decreased, specifically when the testing centres were reportedly presented mainly the highly at-risk population, then it can be assumed that not only the suspected people but also their physicians got in panic.

A second opinion was that testing laboratories had not been able to clear the samples on a day to day basis and were allowing a piling up, which ultimately was tantamount to increasing worries among high risk and contact cases besides those who approached the testers at their own to get out of confusion related to their health. 

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his daily coronavirus update message, said that a record 11,356 tests were conducted, out of which 2,428 were detected positive. 

The results of tests conducted, so far, showed that 22% were positive for COVID-19, which was a thing of concern, while the solution lied in the sincere observation of COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs). 

New COVID-19 deaths reported in Sindh on June 12, included 12 from Karachi, and one each from Sukkur, Larkana, Thatta and Ghotki.

According to the health department’s daily summary, Karachi added 2,049 cases to its overall previous day tally of infections, of 37,493, followed by Ghotki (64), Sukkur (43), Hyderabad (42), Khairpur (39), Jacoababad (26), Larkana (24), Shaheed Benazirabad (20), Sanghar (20), Jamshoro (18), Dadu (17), Kambar Shahdadkot (14), Thatta (8), Mirpurkhas (7), Kashmore (7), Badin (6), Sujawal (6), Shikarpur (5), Tando M Khan (4), Naushero Feroze (4), Tando Allahyar (2), Umerkot (2) and Matiari (1).

At Karachi, seven men, aged 22 to 63 years, and five women, aged 38 to 71, lost their lives, while a man of 69 years died in Sukkur, a woman of 59 years in Larkana, A 21-year old man in Thatta and a 68-year-old woman died in Ghotki. Death of an out of province resident was also confirmed in the province. 

However, nothing could be known about the hospitalization and clinical assessment of the deceased person, as the health department kept a silence on the subject again, while sources claimed that a couple of the coronavirus patients died at homes.