Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday inaugurated the 50-bed COIVD-19 isolation ward of the Dr Ziauddin Hospital’s Keamaricampus.

Meanwhile, 36 more people perished due to the novel coronavirus in the province during the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 1,713 in Sindh.

Accompanied by Ziauddin Hospital Chairman Dr Asim Hussain, the chief minister appreciated the establishment of the COVID-19 isolation and treatment facility in Keamari. He said the group of hospitals was playing an important role in the treatment and management of COVID-19 patients in Karachi.

Talking about the facility, Dr Asim said it had an ICU and an HDU with ventilators. “We have COVID-19 wards at North and Clifton campuses too,” said Dr Asim while talking to the media after the facility’s inauguration.

To a query about the funding from the government for the treatment of OCIVD-19 patients, Dr Asim said had not taken any money or support from the government. “The government should use its funds to improve public hospitals,” telling that they turned down the government’s offer for any help to them.

Since people were not taking the viral disease a serious threat, he said, people were avoiding tests and treating themselves at homes “which is dangerous”. On a question about online education, he said the government didn’t have the capacity to start education on campus or online. “The Ziauddin University has its own online system. We have an online student portal and we are taking online classes and exams. I don’t think the government has any capacity to do this at all.”

COVID-19 situation

Thirty-six more people lost their lives due to COVID-19, said the CM on Friday. According to the CM, 10,276 samples were tested against which 1,468 tested positive for the viral disease, constituting a 14 per cent detection rate.

Murad said so far 553,676 samples had been tested against which 102,368 cases were detected all over Sindh. He said the overall detection rate stood at 18.5 per cent. “Currently, 41,490 COVID-19 positive patients are in the province, of whom 39,859 are in home isolation, 400 at isolation centres and 1,231 at different hospitals. The condition of 1069 patients is critical and 113 of them have been shifted to ventilators.” The CM said 1,538 more patients recovered from the virus in a day and the total number of recovered patients had reached 59,165.

The chief minister said out of 1,468 new cases, 592 were from Karachi. They include 175 from south, 167 from east, 100 from Korangi, 78 from central, 43 from Malir and 29 from west districts. He said Hyderabad had 82 new cases, Shaheed Benazirabad 72, Ghotki 71, Khairpur 54, Tando Allahyar 50, Sukkur 47, Jamshoro 42, Thatta 39, Kashmore 38, Kambar 27, Mirpurkhas 26, Sujawal 22, Tando Mohammad Khan 20, Badin 16, Shikarpur 15, Larkana 13, Jacobabad seven, Sanghar six, Dadu and Umerkot three each and Naushehro Feroze two.