Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Monday advised caution amid upsurge in Covid-19 cases in the province.
In a meeting of Sindh Coronavirus Task Force, CM Sindh Murad Ali Shah said that, “the cases are seemingly on the upward trajectory in the province.”
The session chaired by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, was briefed that Covid-19 active cases were 261 on December 03, which were reached to 403 on January 02, 2022.
“In December 351 tests were conducted and 175 Omicron variant cases were diagnosed,” chief minister said.
“In 30 days 51 Covid patients died, 40 of them on ventilators in hospitals and six of them were not on vent,” the meeting informed.Shah directed the officials to enhance Covid-19 tests over 7,000 in Karachi and Hyderabad each. The CM Sindh also instructed for boosting the vaccination drive in the province.
The fifth wave of coronavirus led by Omicron strain rapidly surging in the country, the NCOC said on Monday. The Omicron variant of the coronavirus leading the upsurge in cases in the country.
“The ratio of positive cases on the rise, especially in Karachi, where the positivity rate has soared to six percent from previous two percent,” the session was informed.
Meanwhile, The Sindh government just to ascertain prevalence of Omicron in the province conducted 351 tests of which 175 were detected as Omicron which constitutes 50 percent of the tests beside delta and other variants. This emerged in a meeting held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah here at CM House on Monday.
The meeting was attended by Minister Health Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Advisor law Murtaza Wahab, Parliamentary Secretary on Health Qasim Soomro, acting Chief Secretary Qazi Shahid Pervez, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary Health Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Dr Ari of Indus Hospital and other concerned officers.
The meeting was told that 351 samples were tested to ascertain the existence of Omicron variant in the province against which 175 cases of Omicron were detected.
It was also pointed out that out of 175 few had travel history predominantly from the UK, Dubai, USA, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Nairobi and Angola.
It was pointed out that during the last 30 days, Dec 3, 2021 to Jan 2, 2022, the number of Covid cases has started increasing.
On December 3, 2021, 261 new cases were detected which kept on showing an upward trend and finally on January 2, 2022 reached 403.
At this the chief minister said that the situation was critical and urged the health department to start an extensive vaccination drive and increase tests of the people all over Sindh. He urged people of the province to adopt precautionary measures; otherwise his government would have to take strict measures.
The meeting was told that during the last 30 days, Dec 4, 2021 to Jan 1, 2022, 51 patients died, of them 40 or 78 percent on ventilators, six or 12 percent off ventilators, five or 10 percent at home. To a question, the CM was told that so far 29,579, 471 vaccinations have been administered all over Sindh.
