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.

Coronavirus Update: Infections double overnight in Karachi

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

After witnessing a gradual decrease in its new COVID-19 infections for a week, Karachi reported a 120% increase in the number of daily new cases on July 22 when authorities in the government confirmed 1,109 new cases across the province during the last 24 hours, with 19 more related deaths.

The megapolis has reported an average about 400 new coronavirus cases daily since July 16. It registered 417 new cases on July 16, which increased to 477 on July 17 but gradually declined up to 179 on July 20. The infections increased to 324 on July 21.

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his daily COVID-19 situation statement on July 22, disclosed that Karachi registered 714 new cases during the last 24 hours.

He shared that with the confirmation of 1,109 new cases the overall infection tally rose to 115,213 on July 22 for the province. Sindh’s new case reporting percentage came as 11%, against the overall provincial rate of infection of 18%.

According to the COVID-19 data, as narrated by the Chief Minister, there were 16,927 active patients, including 16,165 at homes, 61 at the isolation centres.

As many as 701 patients were admitted at hospitals, with 495 in critical condition, while 72 were on ventilators.

A total of 96,226 patients recovered across the province so far, including 1,929 who recovered from the diseases on July 22. With the new COVID-19 related fatalities, the overall number of people having lost their lives in the province came as 2,060 (CFR=2%).

However, no detail about the hospitals and districts of the deceased persons was available either from the Chief Minister or the Sindh health department.

In addition to Karachi, the districts where new cases were confirmed during the last 24 hours ending July 22 morning included Hyderabad (95), Tando Allahyar (26), Thatta (26), Sukkur (25), Matiari (23), Badin (21), Jacobabad (15), Jamshoro (14), Larkana (11), Sujawal (13), Shikarpur (11), Ghotki (9), Umerkot (9), Kambar Shahdadkot (8), Tando Mohammad Khan (4), Tharparkar (3), Shaheed Benazirabad (2), Khairpur (2) and Mirpurkhas (1).

The male-female ratio of the infected persons in the province was reported as 70.6% and 29.4%.

Keen observers felt that the overnight doubling of new infections was nothing surprising as the province was not yet out of the epidemic. The more they will go for sampling the suspected cases the more they will get the COVID-19 infections, it was reckoned.

According to an official report, as of July 21, as many as 6,676 samples were tested at COVID-19 laboratories across Sindh, against a collective capacity of 14,850 tests, while 846, including 551 new cases were found positive.

The report further said that till July 21, one patient died at isolation centre, while 1,544 at hospitals across the province. It was further learnt that of the 375 ICU beds at Karachi’s COVID-19 hospitals 71 were occupied by on-ventilator patients, while 107 were having off-ventilator patients on July 21.

 According to another report, overall 40 deaths occurred across the country on July 20, including four at-home deaths which were reported from Sindh. It was estimated that about 500 COVID-19 patients died at home or on their way to hospitals in Sindh so far.

Yet another relevant data revealed that in all 518 COVID-19 patients died at homes during a period from May 9 to July 21 across the country, compared to 4,493 deaths taking place at hospitals.

Shehron Mein Shehr Karachi celebrates City of Lights befittingly

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Describing her relationship with Karachi as ‘ancient’ as the city itself, Prof Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah, an eminent educationist, has done a wonderful job by bringing out a voluminous book ‘Shehron Mein Shehr Karachi’ which celebrates the City of Lights in a befitting manner. 

The hardbound book, spread over more than 500 pages, is an incredibly worthy effort, undertaken by Prof Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah, serving as the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Karachi, besides being the Director of the Centre of Excellence for Women’s Studies and the Acting Director of the Area Study Centre for Europe. Her forte, over the years, has been social work. 

“This book is an expression of my affection with Karachi and it’s a gift package for those who desire to learn about it. I have tried my best to put together the knowledge about every conceivable subject so that the read could get complete information about the metropolis in a single volume,” the learned professor remarked in a brief chat with PNFS on July 22. 

Prof Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah disclosed having consulted innumerable publications about the city, including the various editions of Jumbo Karachi Guide, for the purpose of gathering and compiling authentic data for her book. 

“Being associated with the field of education and research, I have included detailed information about the various areas of Karachi. Obviously it’s practically not possible to feature each and every aspect of this huge city but I have tried my level best to incorporate maximum possible information in it,” she added. 

‘Shehron Mein Shehr Karachi’ is indeed any researcher’s dream because it contains so much information about the city, including its history, geography and demography, which might not be possible to acquire from any other single publication. 

Prof Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah deserves to be complimented and recognized for having produced such an informative book which should be a part of every library and archival record in the country and abroad.

Chinese satellite images helpful in controlling locust plague

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

The satellite images and meteorological data provided by China’s meteorological satellites can be useful to monitor Pakistan’s desert locusts thus preempted steps can greatly help crops from severe damage.

An official of China Meteorological Administration (CMA) disclosed, on July 22, having released special reports based on remote sensing data of locust attacks in Pakistan. 

“China’s Fengyun series satellites can generate information for analysis of locust-affected areas by monitoring rainfall, soil moisture and land surface temperature (LST) changes taking place in African and South Asian countries,” the CMA expert noted. 

He explained that hotter and wetter climate added more multiplication of locusts' population. The studies have also linked wind direction, speed, and other weather parameters to the migration of locusts. 

According to an update issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), the summer breeding of desert locust swarms has commenced in Pakistan’s Tharparkar, Nara and Cholistan deserts where hatching and band formation may increase later this month.

Pakistan’s university students teach globally

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Over 1,250 high school students from over a hundred cities across Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates took part in a weeklong series of virtual, medical research courses organised by Aga Khan University’s Student Research Forum, SRF. 

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted high school education around the world and has given teenage students the time and opportunity to enhance their skills in a variety of areas such as research and academic writing. 

For many participants, this was their first chance to gain an insight into how to conduct research that generates knowledge in novel areas of medicine and helps physicians assess the value of different types of treatment. 

"The world of research can be intimidating to many young students. Cost represents another barrier as online courses on research skills have high registration and certification charges. Through this course, we wanted to help our younger colleagues add another string to their bow and empower them to pursue their passion for research,” Ali Aahil Noorali, a final year student at AKU’s Medical College, and SRF president, observed. 

The free of cost, introductory sessions witnessed students alongside faculty from AKU’s Medical College explain the research process, analytical methods as well as key writing and referencing techniques to younger students. 

"Research is just like an adventure with so many unknowns to discover. Through this course, which is one of the first for pre-university students, we wanted to give more young people the chance to experience the thrill of conducting their own research experiments and the wonderful surprise that comes when you stumble upon an unexpected finding," Maha Inam, a third year student at AKU’s Medical College and SRF’s director of workshops, added. 

The workshop followed a similar series of free of charge, open-to-all introductory research courses aimed at medical university students in June 2020 that was attended by over 3,500 participants from over 30 cities in Pakistan. 

"Clinical medicine and clinical research have a symbiotic relationship. The more you research, the better your clinical practice and the more observations you make during your practice, the better your research. At the end of the day, medicine is a science and not just a profession and that’s why we want to help all students develop their research skills," Asma Merchant, a fourth year student at AKU’s Medical College and SRF’s vice president, " stated. 

The workshops were organised over Zoom livestream in collaboration with AKU’s Office of Student Experience in Pakistan.

Sister Ruth Lewis dies of COVID-19

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Sister Ruth Lewis, founding member of Darul Sakoon, a centre for physically challenged people in Karachi, lost her life to COVID-19 at a private hospital on July 20. She had tested positive for coronavirus on July 8. She was 77. 

People from different walks of life have paid glowing tribute to Sister Ruth, hoping that her example and spirit to serve humanity would be sustained. 

She was known to be looking after special children with utmost dedication for more than half a century. 

Syed Qasim Naveed Qamar, Special Assistant to Sindh Chief Minister on Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Sindh, expressed deep sorrow over the death, saying that the lady was had selflessly served the helpless people of the society and her services would be remembered for a long time.

Coronavirus Update: Sindh ahead other provinces in deaths, infection

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Sindh, in terms of COVID-19 fatalities reported during the month in progress, stood ahead of other three provinces on July 21 when authorities in the country recorded 551 new infections, with 22 related deaths during the last 24 hours.

According to official data, Sindh had in all 664 COVID-19 deaths from July 1 to 21 in its population of 47.88 million, as such its deaths per million came as 14, against six of KPK, three of Punjab, and one of Balochistan for the same period. 

Pakistan’s death/per million remained six during July. 

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his daily COVID-19 statement on July 21, remarked that 6,676 samples were tested during the last 24 hours across the province, out of which 551 were detected positive for the virus. Sindh has tested 656,593 samples so far, with a positivity rate of 17%. 

According to the Chief Minister, with 22 more deaths of the coronavirus infected patients, the overall tally of COVID fatalities has reached to 2,041.

However, neither he nor the provincial health department gave any district-wise breakdown of the newly occurred deaths.

As per a federal government dashboard, Sindh had witnessed the maximum 14,027 patients having recovered from COVID-19 on July 17, which gradually decreased to 1,365 on July 21.

During the last 24 hours, Karachi registered 324 new cases, followed by Hyderabad (36), Khairpur (20), Shaheed Benazirabad (20), Shikarpur (17), Sukkur (12), Ghotki (10), Larkana (9), Tando Mohammad Khan (9), Kambar Shahdadkot (6), Jamshoro (3), Thatta (3), Dadu (2), Jacobabad (2), Tando Allahyar (2), Sanghar (2), Tharparkar (2), Badin (1), Naushero Feroze (1) and Mirpurkhas (1).

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference on July 21, the spokesperson of Sindh Government, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, observed that the spread of COVID-19 was being controlled with the cooperation of the people of Sindh.

“The Sindh government's strategy to curb the spread of corona has been successful,” he added while presenting the statistics of people infected with the corona virus.

According to him until July 21, the number of cases of coronavirus was about 113,000 while the number in other provinces was very low.

He added that 450,000 tests have been done in Sindh while Punjab which has many times more population than Sindh has undergone about four lakh corona virus tests.

“Sindh also has a high recovery rate among patients infected with the corona virus. Eighty two per cent of patients have recovered in Sindh, while the number is much lower in Punjab and other provinces,” he pointed out.

He further said that the death rate of patients from COVID-19 was also lower than all other provinces in Sindh.

“The statistics show that the Sindh government's strategy regarding coronavirus has been successful,” he reckoned.

Two billion mangroves sapling planted in Sindh coastal areas

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Over two billion saplings of mangroves have been planted in coastal belts of Sindh. 

For the first time the data of plantation is being computerized in the province, the Sindh Minister for Forest and Information, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, disclosed while talking to various delegations here July 21. 

He pointed out through this plan an income of Rupees 10 billion would be generated that would be spent on the welfare of the masses.