Less than a third of Sindh's ventilators allotted for coronavirus patients being utilised: CM Shah

KARACHI: Less than a third of the ventilators set aside for coronavirus patients in Sindh are being utilised, according to data provided in a statement released Sunday by the provincial government.

In the statement, Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah said 109 of the total 451 ventilators in the province's public hospitals had been reserved for coronavirus patients. Of the 109 set aside, only 31 (28.4%) were occupied at present.

"We have equipped our hospitals and coronavirus centres to provide the best treatment facilities to our patients,” Shah said.

The chief minister noted that 5,034 more tests were carried out in the last 24 hours and 787 (15.7%) of those were diagnosed as positive for the novel coronavirus. To date, the government of Sindh has conducted 122,894 tests, of which 16,377 (13.3%) patients tested positive, he added.

Of the 787 patients to test positive, 515 are from Karachi, 31 from Shikarpur, 25 from Larkana, 16 from Hyderabad, 14 from Ghotki, 13 from Kambar-Shahdadkot, six from Khairpur, and three from Jamshoro.

Of those in Karachi, 147 are from the East district, 121 from South, 109 from Central, 52 from Malir, 44 from Korangi, and 42 from West.

Shah added that the deadly virus claimed nine more lives in the past day, taking the death toll to 277 — or (1.7%) of the total patients.

Furthermore, 10,485 of the 11,891 patients under treatment at present are in self-isolation, 838 in isolation centres, and 568 in various different hospitals across Sindh, he said. Of the patients being treated, 114 are in critical condition and 31 of them have been put on ventilators.

The chief minister said that another 405 patients had recovered from the deadly virus, taking the number of cured individuals to 4,209 (26%).