KARACHI: The Sindh government has appealed to the general public to exercise care and caution as 400 new coronavirus cases emerged on Monday.

In a daily update on Covid-19 position in the province, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah pointed out that two more patients died over the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 2,497 since the outbreak. He said 400 new cases were reported from different parts of Sindh. He said the death toll constituted 1.8 per cent.

He said the 400 new cases emerged when 10,881 samples were tested; this constituted 3.6 per cent current detection.

“So far 1,352,139 tests have been conducted which diagnosed 136,795 cases and of them 95.1 per cent or 130,137 have recovered, including 245 overnight,” said the statement.

“Total 4,161 patients are under treatment, of them 3,881 are in home isolation, six at isolation centres and 274 are being treated at different hospitals. The condition of 172 patients is stated to be critical, including 37 shifted to ventilators.”

Mr Shah said that out of 400 new cases, 297 had been detected in Karachi division, including 100 in the East, 92 in South, 56 in Central, 26 in Malir, 14 Korangi and nine in the West district.

Jamshoro has nine cases, Dadu, Hyderabad, Larkana, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur and Ghotki have two each, Kambar, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Umerkot have one case each.

Sindh government’s Barrister Murtaza Wahab, later, warned that the number of coronavirus cases was increasing as the ratio of positivity of the tested cases was also on the rise. In a tweet, he also urged the people to be careful.

“As on 29.09.2020 at 8 AM (last 24 hours), a total of 10,881 #COVID19 test samples were taken in #Sindh. Out of the samples taken, 400 people have tested positive which makes the positivity ratio 3.6%. The numbers are rising fast & the people need to exercise care & caution PLEASE,” he tweeted.

Situation at schools ‘satisfactory’

Meanwhile, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani described the situation at educational institutions ‘satisfactory’ after schools started reopening in the province following closure of more than six months.

In a statement, he said that so far 56,299 tests had been conducted for coronavirus in private and public schools. Out of them 40,150 test results had been received and 303 were found positive for the virus.

“The situation after opening of the schools in the province is much better,” he said while expressing his views on the Sindh education department at a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

“Some 27,933 test results out of 40,414 of the government schools had been received and out of them 217 were positive for the covonavirus. A total of 12,217 out of 15,885 test results of private schools were received and among them 86 were positive.”

The minister also expressed his satisfaction over the observance of the government’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) at schools in the province. He said that he, the secretary and other officials of the education department had been visiting educational institutions on a daily basis.

He further said that collectively the situation at schools was better.

“We have also asked parents to visit schools and review the situation. The parents are advised to drop their children by themselves instead of sending them by van or any other public transport,” Mr Ghani added.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2020