Dr Zafar Mirza lauded for COVID-19 services

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Asad Umar, has lauded the services of Dr Zafar Mirza, the outgoing Special Assistant to Prime Minister, for his services in dealing with the COVID-19 response, after having recognized him at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in Islamabad on August 3. 

"I invited Dr Zafar Mirza to the NCOC to recognize his contributions to the national COVID-19 response in the last several months,” Asad Umar tweeted. 

He expressed his gratitude to Dr Zafar Mirza for the support he had rendered to the government and wished him the best of luck for his future. On the occasion a shield was also presented to him in recognition of his services.

Coronavirus Update: Low testing in Eid holidays

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

While a majority of COVID-19 testing laboratories did not report any new case during the last 24 hours across the province, Sindh registered substantially low infection cases on August 2 when the authorities in the government confirmed a total 177 new cases in the province, with only one related fatality.

The official data revealed that 20 of the 27 COVID-19 laboratories, including 16 at Karachi, among others, did not conduct any test during the last 24 hours ending on the morning of August 2. 

Those who did not perform any COVID-19 tests at Karachi included Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, DUHS Hospital, Civil Hospital, JPMC, PNS Shifa, SIUT, Hashmanis lab and others. 

In all 5272 samples were tested by different laboratories across the province, against an allocated total capacity of 14920, out of which 276 were found positive for the lethal virus, including those of the new patients. 

The LUMHS Hyderabad laboratory conducted the maximum 4056 tested, out of which only 130 (3%) were confirmed new COVID-19 new cases, which gave to understand that the districts reporting to the lab were having the daily infections in negligible sizes.

Karachi reported the maximum 29 (16% of the total new cases), followed by Ghotki (16), Sukkur (15), Shikarpur (13), Tando Allahyar (12), Shaheed Benazirabad (11), Mirpurkhas (10), Jacobabad (8), Matiari (8), Umerkot (8), Hydrabad (7), Khairpur (6), Naushero Feroze (6), Dadu (3), Tando Mohammad Khan (3) and Sanghar (3).

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his daily COVID-19 statement, shared that as many as 8,256 patients were receiving treatment at homes (7,791), isolation centres (12) and hospitals (453), out of which 369 were undergoing the critical phase, while 64 of them were put on ventilators.

With the solitary death, the tally of COVID-19 fatalities reached to 2,224 for Sindh, while the overall number of people infected in the province increased to 121,486, with the infection rate of 16%.