LARKANA: The number of Covid-19 positive cases continued to register a surge in different parts of Sindh as officials, hospital sources and managements of various quarantine facilities reported many more local transmission cases on Saturday.

Among the fresh cases was of a former registrar of the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU) who along with his two sons went into isolation at their house after being diagnosed Covid-19 positive. The test results of 15 doctors and nine paramedics working in the medical unit-III and chest department of the Chandka Medical College Teaching Hospital [city block] turned out to be negative. The control room at the Larkana deputy commissioner’s office confirmed on late Friday evening that the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the district had jumped from 77 to 94 with the addition of 17 new cases. Of them 48 were confined to their houses in isolation. Another seven had already recovered and discharged, sources said.

HYDERABAD: A government dispensary doctor, a policeman and an Ehsas Kifalat franchise official were tested positive during tests on Saturday.

Among the 91 people tested were mostly vendors and other persons who were part of the ongoing Ehsaas Kifalat programme at different centers in Hyderabad. None of them has so far tested positive, according to an administration official.

The doctor is said to be a paedriatician post at the dispensary in Liaquat Colony in Hyderabad while the policeman and franchise official were tested positive in Tando Allahyar.

Their samples were collected on Friday in Hyderabad and Tando Allahyar and the tests were done at the diagnostic and research laboratory of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro.

Samples of a total of 91 people were collected in Hyderabad on Friday and of them 26 were tested positive in their laboratory reports on Saturday. Out of them, 21 were those whose tests were repeated to determine their infection while remaining five included four fresh positive cases in Hyderabad. The last one appeared to be a resident of Sanghar who is admitted in the Combined Military Hospital (CMH).

NAWABSHAH: A batch of 88 prisoners kept in the Shaheed Benazirabad district jail in Nawabshah was shifted to Mirpurkhas jail on Saturday to manage overcrowding and implement measures against transmission of Covid-19 infection.

Jail Superintendent Ashfaq Kalwar told reporters in Nawabshah that the decision was taken under the instructions of the inspector general of prisons, Sindh.

He said special precautionary measures were taken in the safe shifting of the prisoners as per the prescribed SOPs advisory of the health department.

He every prisoner was subjected to screening and initial test. They were also made to wear masks and gloves and use sanitiser, he said, adding that the van by which they were transported to Mirpurkhas was thoroughly disinfected.

SUKKUR: As many as nine suspected Covid-19 patients escaped from the Ghotki quarantine centre, guarded by police, on Saturday night, according to APP. According to the district administration, a total of 116 members of Tableeghi Jamaat were quarantined at the centre. It said those who escaped hailed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2020