Why does Karachi desperately need a coronavirus lockdown?
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Thursday Jul 29, 2021
A man wearing a protective mask walks through a crowd of people along a makeshift market as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Karachi. Photo: Reuters
Coronavirus is spreading in Karachi like wildfire. The positivity rate has surged past 30%, hospitals are running out of space, the demand for oxygen tanks is increasing and daily cases are continuing to pile up.
Given the alarming rise in cases, Pakistan Medical Association Secretary-General Dr Qaiser Sajjad has suggested imposing a 15-day lockdown in the metropolis.
Dr Sajjad believes that if we count those people who have not taken a PCR test for COVID-19, the positivity ratio in the city has likely reached 40%.
July 29, 2021
The Sindh government has decided to establish a 100-bed isolation facility in District Malir to properly isolate those air passengers coming to the Karachi airport from abroad who are diagnosed with coronavirus infection.
The decision to this effect was reached on Wednesday at a top-level meeting held at the Sindh Secretariat with Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah in chair.
The chief secretary asked the Karachi commissioner and Malir deputy commissioner to establish a 100-bed isolation facility for the coronavirus patients among the air travellers coming to Karachi from abroad. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority in Sindh would provide all the necessary facilities for the purpose.
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July 28, 2021
Alarm bells started ringing in Islamabad over the Covid-19 situation in Karachi where positive cases surged to 30.58 per cent as 1,704 people tested positive when 5,571 tests were conducted at 24 testing facilities in the city over the past 24 hours, Sindh health department officials said on Tuesday.
“The positivity of cases is continuously rising in Karachi, and we are still far from peak of this wave. With an alarmingly high number of Covid-19 cases, hospitalisation has reached record numbers and now most of the tertiary-care health facilities are unable to cope up with the pressure of patients,” an official of the health department told The News.
July 25, 2021
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on Saturday fully activated 77-bedded Covid-19 ward at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
KMC Administrator Laeeq Ahmed, during his visit to the Covid-19 ward, also announced a month s extra pay for the doctors and paramedical staff serving in the ward. He also asked the health secretary to send the patients to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital who could not be admitted in the government-run hospitals in Sindh due to lack of capacity.
Ahmed said that there were no beds available for the coronavirus patients in the hospitals in Karachi and this was a very dangerous situation. He also asked the people to strictly follow the SOPs for Covid-19.