After Ramadan, number of female coronavirus patients rose significantly: Wahab

KARACHI: Sindh government Spokesman Murtaza Wahab said on Tuesday that after Ramadan and ease in lockdown, the number of female coronavirus patients rose significantly in the province.

The Sindh government spokesman was addressing a press conference, along with provincial minister Nasir Hussain Shah. The Sindh government officials expressed concern over the rise in number of cases.

Wahab said that earlier the rate of infection was higher in men, but now women and children are also getting infected rapidly.

He said that despite closing the schools since January 26, around 1,148 children under the age of 10 have been infected so far.

Wahab said he observed several women not wearing masks at public places, urging them to either use their dupattas or a handkerchief if they don’t have a mask to cover their faces.

Nasir Shah said that Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah has taken notice of the incidents that occurred at Jinnah and Civil hospital.

He said that untoward incidents are occurring at the hospitals, and the number of cases are rising as well, requesting people to not misbehave with the medical staff.

Shah said that upon PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto’s directives, a taskforce was made on February 26 to deal with the situation due to the pandemic.

The minister said that everything cannot be shutdown in the province in order to sustain livelihoods but preventive measures can be adopted.

On Tuesday, Sindh recorded more than 31,000 cases and above 500 deaths.

Virus claims 23 more lives 

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the coronavirus has claimed 23 more lives and infected 1,439 people in Sindh within the past 24 hours, adding that 953 more patients have recovered.

In a statement issued from the CM House on Tuesday, Shah said that with testing of 5, 454 samples, 1,439 new cases emerged, constituting 26.4 percent of the tests. He added that the government has conducted 192,546 tests which produced 31,086 cases. “In other words, the overall detection of the cases comes to 16.2 percent while the current detection has been recorded at 26.4 percent,” he said.

The chief minister said that with the death of 23 more patients, the death toll has reached 526, which was 1.7 percent of the total patients. “Our death rate has increased from 1.6 percent to 1.7 percent,” he said, adding that 358 patients were in a critical condition, with 64 on ventilators.

Giving details of 15,022 under treatment patients, the CM said that 13,813 were in home isolation, 111 at isolation centres and 1,098 at different hospitals. So far 15,538 patients have recovered, making 50 percent recovery ratio, he added.

Sharing district-wise data, Shah said that out of 1,439 cases, 1,035 belonged to Karachi. He said Korangi has the highest number with 263 cases, East 242, Central 166, South 167, Malir 139 and West 58.

Shah said that in the rural areas the coronavirus was spreading like fire in the jungle. He added that Larkana has 50 cases, Hyderabad 47, Sukkur 40, Khairpur 33, Ghotki 27, Shaheed Benazirabad 17, Badin 15, Sanghar 13, Jamshoro nine, Qambar six, Sujawal and Shikarpur have five each, and Tando Mohamamd Khan, Umerkot and Matiari have one case each.

The Sindh chief minister urged people to follow the SOPs, saying otherwise this pandemic could not be defeated.