KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Sunday that in terms of detection of new coronavirus cases, deaths of patients and plane crash tragedy the month of May proved to be the heaviest and worst as far as loss of human life was concerned.

In a statement issued from the CM House, he said that deaths stemming from the coronavirus started from March 19 when the first patient died. “The month of March claimed nine lives, April 109 and May so far claimed 363 lives. In this way, coronavirus has claimed 481 valuable lives,” he said.

“Apart from the coronavirus, we lost 97 lives in the plane crash again in the month of May. In this way, we have lost 515 lives in May alone,” he said with a heavy heart and prayed for the departed souls and recovery of the bereaved families from the pain.

885 new cases in Sindh

He said that during the last 24 hours, 4,100 tests were conducted which detected 885 new cases.

“This means our detection ratio comes to 21.6 per cent which is again the highest than various countries,” he said and added that the provincial government had so far conducted 180,803 tests, which diagnosed 28,245 cases that constituted 15.6pc of the total tests.

A total of 553 patients go home in a day after recovering from Covid-19

Talking about deaths, Mr Shah said that 16 more patients died during the last 24 hours, lifting the death toll to 481 that constituted 1.7pc mortality rate.

“Our 334 patients are in critical condition, of them 62 are on ventilators,” he said.

Giving district-wise figures, Mr Shah said that out of 885 new cases in Sindh, 617 cases belonged to Karachi. They include 184 in East, 146 South, 127 in Central, 27 in Korangi, 46 in Malir and 41 cases in West.

He said Sukkur had 37 cases, Khairpur 34, Ghotki 27, Hyderabad 25, Larkana 24, Jacobabad 24, Shikarpur 16, eight each in Jamshoro and Sanghar, Mirpurkhas five, Kambar and Badin three each, Shaheed Benazirabad two, Matiari, Dadu, Tando Allahyar and Tando Mohammad Khan had one each case.

He said at present 13,954 patients were under treatment, of them 12,773 at their homes, 108 at isolation centres and 1,073 at different hospitals.

49pc of patients cured

The CM said that 553 more patients were cured and returned to their normal lives.

“I am glad to disclose that 13,810 patients, or 49 of the total patients, have recovered and leading their normal life,” he said.

The chief minister said that the local transmission in rural areas was also increasing.

“The threat [of local transmission] is quite dangerous because it spreads exponentially and we have to contain it by observing social distancing, wearing masks and avoiding social gathering,” he said.

According to Mr Shah, 34 flights from April 18 to May 28 had brought 6,378 stranded Pakistanis back to Karachi, of them 1,208 were infected. “We took proper care of the stranded Pakistanis and kept them in isolation and started discharging those who went on recovering,” he said.

Sharing the data of plane crash in Karachi, Mr Shah said that out of 97 bodies, 75 had been identified and handed over to their heirs. Now, eight bodies were in the mortuary of Chippa and 14 at Edhi foundations.

He said that the process of matching DNAs was in progress and the bodies, after their identifications, were being handed over to their families.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2020