KARACHI: While Covid-19 positivity ratio continued to stay below two per cent in the metropolis, at least 24 patients of Covid-19 have succumbed to the infection over the past 12 days in Sindh, raising the death toll of the sixth coronavirus wave to 111, it emerged on Saturday.

Thirty-seven patients have so far died this month.

Sources said the majority of these deaths occurred at private hospitals in Karachi, which had seen a significant reduction in the number of coronavirus cases over the past two months.

The case positivity ratio in the city has dropped from 20-25 per cent in July to 1.48pc in the third week of August.

The sources said most of the victims were elderly patients with other health complications and they had been under treatment at hospitals for weeks.

37 deaths reported this month from Sindh

Nine of these deaths, according to the health department data, occurred on Aug 10 while six patients died on Aug 14. Three mortalities were reported on Aug 12.

Forty-nine patients are still in critical condition while 3,775 patients are under care and treatment. Ninety-eight per cent of these patients are under home isolation.

“We have had only two deaths in 12 days. Now, there are only 11 to 12 admitted patients at our hospital,” said Dr Abdul Wahid Rajput, the medical superintendent of the Sindh Infectious Disease Hospital and Research Centre.

The number of Covid patients had reduced drastically over the past three weeks and now there were no admission on a daily basis, he added.

The 150-bedded hospital with three intensive care units is the only state-of-the-art government facility dedicated to treatment for patients of infectious diseases including Covid.

Karachi was the most affected part of the province at the start of the sixth Covid wave in June with 340 positive cases in a week, raising the positivity rate to 10.69pc. The month saw 10 deaths while there were 64 deaths in July.

Experts held a new sub-variant of Omicron (BA.5), which had already been reported in other countries and Pakistan, responsible for the fast spread of the disease.

A vast majority of Covid patients, they said, did not report at health facilities at all and safely recovered at home.

They attributed the small number of patient hospitalisation to mass vaccination against the infection in the country.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2022