May proved deadliest month for Sindh: Murad
Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Pakistan’s death toll from Covid-19 reached 1,519 mark after 78 more fatalities were reported especially in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh on Sunday, while confirmed Corona cases touched 70,868 as 1,585 new cases were recorded throughout the country.
The province-wise tally of Covid-19 patients stands at 25,056 cases in Punjab, 28,245 in Sindh, 10,027 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4,193 in Balochistan, 678 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 2,418 in Islamabad and 251 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 25,271 coronavirus patients have recovered.
Punjab reporting 952 new cases saw a record jump in the number of fatalities due to the virus, as 36 more deaths reported in the last 24 hours, according to the provincial primary and secondary healthcare department. The latest figure raises the death toll in the province to 475.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has reported 20 more deaths, taking the total to 473 in the province. The tally of infections breached the grim milestone of 10,000 with 487 new cases. The total now stands at 10,027.
Sindh has reported 885 new cases, taking the provincial total to 28,245. Moreover, 16 more deaths have also been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the fatalities in the province to 481.
May has proved to be the deadliest month so far in terms of Covid-19 deaths, remarked Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Sunday, as he re-ported that the coro-navirus had claimed 16 more lives in the province while 885 new cases were de-tected over the past 24 hours.
“The first infection-related death was re-ported in March, which saw total nine deaths of Covid-19 patients, followed by 109 in April,” he said, adding that in May, 363 patients succumbed to the vi-rus, making it the deadliest month yet.
And with 16 more deaths on Sunday, the province’s death toll has climbed to 481, the CM ob-served.
Besides, May also witnessed the tragic death of 97 people aboard the ill-fate plane the crashed in Model Colony, he rued. “In this way, [at least] 515 deaths were recorded in the month,” he re-marked.
On a different note, the CM said that 885 more coronavirus were reported in the province as of Sun-day, following which the virus tally rose to 28,245.
Among the newly-emerged cases, the CM said, 617 were from Karachi, with 184 belonging to East district, 146 to South district, 127 to Central district, 27 to Korangi, 46 to Malir and 41 to West dis-trict.
Moreover, 37 cases were detected in Sukkur, 34 in Khair-pur, 27 in Ghotki, 25 in Hyderabad, 24 in Larkana and as many in Jacobabad, 16 in Shikarpur, eight each in Sanghar and Jam-shoro, five in Mir-purkhas, three each in Qambar-Shahdadkot and Badin, two in Sha-heed Benazirbad and one each in Matiari, Dadu, Tando Allah Yar and Tando Mu-hammad Khan, he added.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the National Coordination Committee will finalise the strategy for tackling the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown restrictions imposed in the country today.
The meeting will be attended by all four chief ministers, federal ministers, chairman National Disaster Management Authority and the provincial health ministers.
The meeting will decide whether to ease the lockdown across the country or to extend it as the number of cases continue to rise in Pakistan.
The NCC, in its last meeting on May 7, had decided to extend the lockdown till May 31. However, markets and shopping malls were opened for the public, with SOPs, on the directives of the Supreme Court. A meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre on Saturday under Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar mulled over the country’s new “Living with the Pandemic” strategy to cope with coronavirus.
