Lebanon trains dogs to sniff out COVID-19 infections

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

With Lebanon’s coronavirus (COVID-19) numbers in the midst of a troubling upswing, officials announced that they were training police dogs from the country’s various security agencies to detect the smell of the virus in sweat. 

According to a television report, Lebanon has joined a number of countries that have been testing the effectiveness of canines in sniffing out COVID-19, including Germany, Finland, Chile, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

The dogs in Lebanon were being trained at an Internal Security Forces barracks in the town of Aramoun, south of Beirut. 

Lebanon’s Health Minister, Hamad Hassan, conceded that the initiative was desperately needed in the prevailing circumstances. 

Lebanese surgeon, Riad Sarkis, worked on a proof-of-concept study to evaluate the efficacy of using dogs to detect COVID-19 in collaboration with a French team led by Professor Dominique Grandjean of the National Veterinary School of Alfort in France, with testing conducted in both countries. 

Grandjean claimed that two specially trained dogs would have the capacity to search about 4,000 people per day.

India to participate in China's film festival

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

As the clouds of suspicion were hovering that how Chinese moviegoers would respond because of the strained relationship, following stand-off of security forces in Ladakh, India has opted to take part in the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) starting on July 25. 

Eight Indian movies including the two Bollywood Hindi hits ‘Article 15’ and ‘Section 375’ are due to be screened at the SIFF. At least four of the movies, including two directed by acclaimed directors Gautam Ghosh and Prakash Jha, will be part of the India Film Week during the SIFF. 

The Chinese film critics and historians have welcomed the move even when the political and diplomatic relationships were far from normal.

Interestingly, the Chinese remake of Indian thriller ‘Drishyam’ having been been promoted by Chinese media as ‘Sheep without a Shepherd’ was leading the current box office in the country. 

The movie was reported to have grossed three million Yuan ($430,095) since Chinese mainland theatres reopened on July 20, despite competition from Hollywood hits such as Coco and China’s Wolf Warrior 2.

Coronavirus Update: Sindh CFR climbs to 1.80%

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Sindh’s COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR) continued increasing on July 23 when the government confirmed yet 36 more deaths in the province during the last 24 hours, with 670 new infections, pushing the overall tally of deaths to 2,096 and infections to 115,883 for the province.

According to the data, Sindh’s CFR was 1.80% on July 23, against 1.61% of July 1. The rate was 1.64% on July 8, 1.73 on July 15 and 1.78 on July 22. As of July 22, against Pakistan’s overall CFR of 2.1%, KPK rate was 3.53%, followed by Punjab (2.30%), Sindh (1.78%) and Balochistan (1.18%) and other territories.

 The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his daily COVID-19 statement, shared that as many as 9,804 samples were tested during the last 24 hours ending July 23 morning, out of which 670 were detected positive. “In all 686,505 people have been tested for the lethal infection across the province, so far,” he added.

He further declared that 3,176 more patients recovered from the disease on July 23, while 14,385 were still receiving treatment either at hospitals or homes. Of the 685 patients at hospitals, 440 were critical condition; 70 were on-ventilators.

The details about the hospitalization of the deceased patients and their living districts could not be known as the Chief Minister’s office as well as the health department were silent on the subject.

According to the Chief Minister’s statement, Karachi reported the maximum of 305 cases, including 132 from the South district, which had a disease attack rate of 879.8 per 100,000 persons.

In addition to Karachi, Khairpur reported 34 new cases, and they were followed by Ghotki (27), Badin (27), Sanghar (22), Kambar Shahdadkot (20), Shaheed Benazirabad (19), Naushro Feeroze (19), Shikarpur (19), Hyderabad (17), Mirpurkhas (15), Dadu (15), Umerkot (12), Jacobabad (11), Sukkur (8). Tando Allahyar (8), Thatta (8), Tando Mohammad Khan (7), Jamshoro (7), Larkana (6), Kashmore (1) and Sujawal (1).

In the meantime, according to an official report on July 22, different COVID-19 testing laboratories across the province examined 10,108 samples, ie 68% of their collective maximum daily capacity.

As many as 1,435 samples were found positive for the virus, including 1,096 (76%) new cases.

The report further said that in all 845 prisoners were infected with the virus at the Karachi Centre Prison, out of which 795 recovered, while 50 were still receiving treatment.

As of July 22, a total 590 positive cases were admitted at the Karachi Expo Centre, out of which 578 recovered from the disease, one has died while 11 were still admitted, This was the only isolation centre having COVID-19 patients, while another 14 such centres in the province were having no case for treatment.

As many as 52 government and privately run hospitals across the province, as of July 22, had collectively admitted 5,223 patients, out of whom 2,955 got recovered from the coronavirus disease, 701 were receiving treatment, while 1,567 succumbed to the deadly virus.

The highest number of COVID-19 deaths (591), occurred either at hospitals or homes, were reported among the patients in the age group of 60-69 years.

A maximum of 217 patients out of 366 admissions died at JPMC, 213 out of 494 died at CHK, 205 out of 598 at DUHS Hospital, 164 out of 436 at Indus Hospital Karachi, 163 out of 501 at SIUT, 117 out of 569 at AKU Hospital, 91 out of 213 at Karachi Trauma Centre, 81 out of 198 at Ziauddin Hospital Clifton, 62 out of 145 at Lyari General Hospital, 53 out of 198 at Ziauddin Hospital North Nazimabad, among others.

The Aga Khan University Hospital, PNS Shifa and NICH Karachi had no ICU beds empty for any new patient on July 22, while the newly established Infectious Diseases Hospital and Research Centre, Social Security Kidney Centre Landhi, Fauji Hospital, Kulsoom Bai Valika Hospital, Social Security Hospital Landhi were having no patients in their COVID-19 ICU units.

According to a mortality analysis, 12 off-ventilator deaths took place in the country on July 21, including three in Sindh -- two died at home, while one died due to sudden cardiac pulmonary arrest. In the meantime, infections among the healthcare workers also continued in Sindh.

As of July 21, overall, as many as 1,480 doctors, 160 nurses and 285 paramedics and other staffs contracted the disease while performing duties in critical care units or elsewhere. As many as 1,742 of them have recovered while 29 healthcare professionals have perished.

SEZs prioritized in Dhabaji, Faisalabad

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

Three Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have been prioritized that will usher across the board development including provision of large scale of employments.

"Out of nine SEZs planned to be developed, we have prioritized three of them,” Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, who holds dual charges as Chairman, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority and Special Assistant to Prime Minister, disclosed in an interview on July 23.

Each one of these three prioritized SEZs will be located in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh. 

Giving breakup of these SEZs, he said that they had already acquired one thousand acre of land for Rashkai SEZ in KPK and formalities for the development of this SEZ have been completed. 

Looking at the two other SEZs he pointed out that the ground breaking of Faisalabad SEZ in Punjab has also taken place while they were in the process of mobilizing development partners. 

“The third one on the priority list is Dhabaji SEZ for which bids will be opened later today (July 23). This is a mega project spread on an area of three thousand acres. I was informed by the Sindh Board of Investment that many Chinese companies are keen to make investment in Dhabaji SEZ,” he added.  

The CPEC Authority chief informed that the process of relocation of Chinese industries to Pakistan was also in progress.

Sindh to launch new vehicle number plates with security features

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

New vehicle owners in Sindh will be started getting chip-fixed number plates with added security features from November this year.

The Director General Excise and Taxation and Narcotics Sindh, Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, in an interview, disclosed the salient features of the state of the art number plates.

He informed that the chip carried all relevant data that would be very helpful in tracing the lost or snatched vehicles besides details of the owner and payment of taxes.

The DG Excise Taxation explained that the new number plates would have five security features, including a tracking chip/radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, laser serial number identification, the Sindh government's monogram, integrated laser mark, and embedded graphics.

He further stated that the new plates would be delivered in three phases. In the first phase, from November, these would be delivered to new owners, in second stage it will be delivered to those vehicle owners visiting E&T office for transfer or resale while and in last phase an advice will be issued to all vehicles including bikers to get new number plates.

Shoiaib Siddiqui added that the new number plates were being produced in coordination with the National Radio and Telecommunications (NRTC).

“They would also assist in tracking vehicles and make it easier to obtain data as they would be camera-readable,” he informed.

The NRTC had tasked manufacturing these number plates to all the four provinces. The governments of Balochistan and Punjab have already launched similar upgraded number plates. From these number plates, the data will be available to the E & T department regarding the number of vehicles plying on roads and those lying in junkyards or out of use for various reasons.