Coronavirus Update: Karachi besieged with record single-day deaths, infection

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Karachi, the largest hub of coronavirus cases in the country, on May 30 reported its all days’ highest number of new infections and relevant deaths as 1,043 and 35, respectively, taking the Sindh’s tally of infections to 1,247 and deaths to 38 for the day. Previously the megapolis had registered its maximum daily new infections (872) on May 20 and daily deaths (30) on May 29. The tally of infections in Karachi has reached to a staggering 21,879.

In the meantime, despite the demise of 65 COVID-19 patients on May 29 and 30, the situation related to intensive care unit beds at 12 hospitals of Karachi did not changed considerably. There were 51 patients on ventilators with another 79 off vents while nine beds were vacant on May 30.

A keen observer said that largely the patients were being kept on ICU beds equipped with ventilators, while they did not require the ventilators and as such, on the other hand, more deserving vent seeking patients were denied admissions on the pretext that ICU beds were already occupied. 

It was suggested that the health authorities should ensure maximum and timely utilization of ventilators available in the ICU block or units of hospitals handling the COVID-19 infected patients. 

“They may have a separate block or section of ICU beds, without ventilators for those who do not need ventilators, so that more and more vent deserving cases are accepted at hospitals.” 

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his daily COVID-19 related statement said that there were still 310 patients getting treatment in critical condition while 522 were released from hospitals after having recovered from the diseases.

He added that 12,566 coronavirus infected patients were receiving treatment at their respective houses, while 127 were isolated in Quarantine centres, in addition to 931 admitted at various health units across the province. 

Though there was no elaborate information about 35 patients who died at Karachi, a health department summary said that the deceased persons included 12 women and 23 men. 

The deceased men were in the age brackets of 40-86 years while women were aged between 40 to 73 years. 

Three more patients died of COVID-19 diseases outside of Karachi, a woman aged 45 years at Sukkur, a man of 41 years at Thatta and another woman, aged 80 years, lost her life at Hyderabad. 

Apart from Karachi’s 1,043 new cases, other districts also reported cases of infection during the last 24 hours ending at 9 am on May 30. The cases were reported from Ghotki (29), Hyderabad (24), Larkana (23), Jacobabad (22), Sukkur (21), Shikarpur (21), Jamshoro (14), Khairpur (8), Shaheed Benazirabad (8), Sujawal (8), Kambar Shahdadkot (5), Mirpurkhas (5), Dadu (4), Thatta (3), Badin (3), Kashmore (2) and Sanghar (1). 

The province has detected 27,360 coronavirus positive cases so far out of 176,703 samples, the official summary added.