Coronavirus Update: Sindh recovery below national average

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Sindh, having shown sharp rises in coronavirus count in last one week, did not report any significant patient discharge rate so far as the health authorities declared on May 5 that they cured 42 patients in the last 24 hours while the death toll for the day was 11, the second highest after April 30 when the province reported 12 relevant deaths. 

As per the official COVID-19 data, 2,898 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported in the week (April 29-May 5), while only 708 patients, including pilgrims and members of tableeghi jamat at Sukkur, could recover from the diseases during the same period. The recovery figures remained 206 on April 29, 53 on April 30, 78 on May 1, 41 on May 2, 214 on May 3, 74 on May 4 and 42 on May 5.

Keen observers said that on average 101 COVID-19 patients were being declared cured per day in comparison to 414 new cases on the seven days in question.

The official data showed the recovery rate just about 20% for Sindh as a whole against the country’s about 26.5% on April 5. 

Referring to the international trend of recoveries, the experts said that ideally the COVID-19 patients may take a maximum two weeks, excepting extremely critical ones or comorbidity cases. 

It’s now time that Sindh should ensure the number of its cured patients matching to the number of patients who were admitted in the system on a daily basis over two weeks back on April 16 to 19, when the daily intake of infected patients on average was 224 patients.

According to the Sindh health department data on coronavirus, released on May 5, the province reported another 307 new cases, taking the tally of positive cases to 8,189, while the overall number of recovered patient remained 1,671. 

In all eleven patients died of COVID-19 in 24 hours ending at 8 am on May 5; nine patients including a female lost their lives at Karachi, while a male passed away at Sukkur and Sanghar, taking the tally of deaths across the province to 148. Sanghar reported its first death due to coronavirus, a 43-year-old male, while other deceased persons were aged from 26 to 80 years. 

Expressing concern over the deaths among patients aged from 20 to 50 years and low rate of patients’ recovery, a health practitioner said that such demises were alarming and hinted a review of the type and quality of treatment being provided to the infected people. 

Taking deaths of young people of 20 to 50 years in to account, the practitioner stressed for conducting autopsies and analyzing the findings. 

As many as 253 new cases were reported in Karachi, followed by Khairpur (21), Kashmore (13), Larkana (8), Hyderabad (5), Sukkur (3) and Badin (2), while Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar, reported one new case each. 

Overall 2,250 people were tested, taking the tally of such people to 68,873 across the province since February 26 when the first COVID-19 case was reported here.