Coronavirus Update: Four infected abroad die in Sindh

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Sindh, which is dealing with its own fast-growing number of COVID-19 cases and related death toll, reported two more deaths among Pakistanis returning infected with the viral from abroad on May 16, taking the tally of such deaths to four in last five days, according to official reports. 

A Sindh Health department’s daily COVID-19 summary said that deceased male patients, who not residents of Sindh, were aged 35 and 55 years respectively.

Earlier, two coronavirus stranded Pakistanis lost their lives at Karachi, their port of landing, on May 15 and May 12. They included a man aged 22 and a woman aged 61 years, who were also not the residents of Sindh province. 

In the meantime, the official summary confirmed infections among 11 more among 11 out of province resident, taking the tally of the infected stranded Pakistanis to 742, who returned from recent inbound flights. 

According to a government official, the out of province residents were people arriving to Karachi by flights, who happened to live in other provinces. 

“Since majority of the international flights are coming to Karachi everyone living abroad is taking the Karachi bound flight, who upon return, have to observe the prescribed SOPs and as such many of them test COVID-19 virus positive,” the official elaborated. 

The breakdown of corona infected people suggested that infections among the Pakistanis returning from abroad constituted five per cent of the total COVID-19 positive cases of Sindh. However, the official report was silent about the rate of infections in the cases of residents of Sindh returning from abroad any detail of death, if any.

A keen observer remarked that detection of infections in hundreds of Pakistanis landing at Karachi and other ports in hundreds spoke a lot about the “quality of preventive measures and treatment different countries have been ensuring in the case of foreign residents.” 

The challenges for Sindh, already upset due to resources scarcity, increase further when it needs to quarantine Pakistani repatriates in a large number, the observer lamented. 

The health department summary revealed another 11 COVID-19 deaths recorded in Sindh during the last 24 hours ending at 8 am on May 16. 

As many as four deaths of women, aged from 51 to 88 years, four men, aged from 39 to 90 years occurred in Karachi, while a 60-year-old man died at Hyderabad, a 35-year-old woman at Mirpurkhas and a 40-year-old man died at Larakana, taking the tally of deceased COVID-19 patients to 268.

In the meantime, another official report said that 10 of the 13 persons died on ventilators in the last 24 hours. In all 4,467 new tests were conducted, out of which 674 samples tested positive for coronavirus. 

Karachi reported the maximum number of 559 new cases, followed by Hyderabad (55 cases), Sukkur (11), Khairpur (6), Kambar Shahdadkot (6), Sanghar (4), Larkana (3), Jacobabad (3), Tando Mohammad Khan (3), Kashnore (3), Matiari (2), Shaheed Benazirabad (2), Ghotki (2), while Thatta and Jamshoro reported one case each. 

Sindh’s total number of coronavirus tests rose to 117,860, out of which 15,590 samples tested positive.